ANTHROPOLOGICAL  PAPERS 

OF 

THE  AMERICAN  MUSEUM 
OF  NATURAL  HISTORY 

VOL.  X,  PART  IV 

.  THE  BEAVER  INDIANS 

BY 

PLINY  EARLE  GODDARD. 


NEW  YORK 

PUBLISHED  BY  ORDER  OF  THE  TRUSTEES 
1916 


American  Museum  of  Natural  History. 

<  '  PUBLICATIONS  IN  ANTHROPOLOGY. 


In  1906  the  present  series  of  Anthropological  Papers  was  authorized  by  the 
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I.  Chipewyan  Texts.  By  Pliny  Earle  Goddard.  Pp.  1--66.  1912.  Price, 

$1.00. 

II.  Analysis  of  Cold  Lake  Dialect,  Chipewyan.  By  Pliny  Earle  Goddard. 
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IV.  The  Beaver  Indians.  By  Pliny  Earle  Goddard.  Pp.  201-293,  and  19 
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V.  (In  press.) 

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V.  Dancing  Societies  of  the  Sarsi  Indians.  By  Pliny  Earle  Goddard.  Pp. 
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XII.  (In  preparation). 


(Continued  on  3d  p.  of  cover.) 


ANTHROPOLOGICAL  PAPERS 

OF 

THE  AMERICAN  MUSEUM  ■ 
OF  NATURAL  HISTORY 

VOL.  X,  PART  IV 

THE  BEAVER  INDIANS 


PLINY  EARLE  GODDARD. 


NEW  YORK 

PUBLISHED  BY  ORDER  OF  THE  TRUSTEES 
1916 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2018  with  funding  from 
Getty  Research  Institute 


https://archive.org/details/beaverindiansOOgodd 


THE  BEAVER  INDIANS. 

By  Pliny  Earle  Goddard. 


201 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  material  presented  in  this  paper  was  secured  during  the  summer  of 
1913,  spent  on  the  Peace  River.  Arriving  at  Vermilion  June  18,  a  visit 
was  first  made  to  the  Slavey  on  Hay  River  on  the  occasion  of  the  payment 
of  the  treaty  money.  The  month  of  July  and  the  first  two  weeks  of  August 
were  spent  with  the  Beaver  on  Paddle  River,  particular  attention  being 
given  to  the  language  and  the  securing  of  myths  and  tales  in  the  form  of 
texts.  During  the  latter  half  of  August  and  September  the  Beaver  of  Fort 
St.  John  and  Dunvegan  were  visited.  About  half  of  this  time  was  con¬ 
sumed  in  travel;  and  work  with  the  Indians  was  difficult  because  suitable 
interpreters  were  not  available. 

Not  much  of  ethnological  interest  is  directly  observable  at  Vermilion 
since  the  outward  aspects  of  life  have  yielded  to  the  long  continued  influence 
of  the  fur  traders.  Conditions  in  that  respect  appear  to  be  better  at  Fort 
St.  John,  but  the  Indians  had  left  or  were  on  the  point  of  leaving  for  the  fall 
hunting.  The  few  ethnological  notes  here  presented  were  mostly  secured 
incidentally  to  the  linguistic  work  and  the  collecting  of  specimens. 

The  sounds  of  Beaver  are  represented  as  follows:  —  a,  e,  i,  o,  u,  nearly  as 
in  father,  met,  pique,  bone,  and  rule;  u  as  in  but;  g,,  e,  j,  q,  ij,  nasalized;  c  as 
sh;  x  as  jota  in  Spanish;  1,  a  lateral  surd  spirant;  e  glottal  stop;  after  a 
consonant  indicates  glottalization  of  the  consonant. 


February  14,  1916. 


CONTENTS. 


Page. 

INTRODUCTION . 203 

ETHNOLOGICAL  NOTES . 208 

Shelter  .  ......  210 

Transportation . 212 

Food  ............  213 

Clothing . 216 

Industrial  Arts . 219 

Social  Organization . 221 

Burial  Customs . 222 

Religion . 226 

MYTHS  AND  TALES . 232 

Tumaxale,  a  Culture  Hero  . . 232 

Agait’osdOnne,  The  Hair  Scrapings  Man  —  First  Version  .  .  237 

Agait’csdUnne,  The  Hair  Scrapings  Man  —  Second  Version  .  .  240 

Atcecq  Kills  Buffalo . 241 

AtcecQ  Kills  a  Bad  Man  ...  ....  242 

Agait’osdOnne  Marries  the  Chief’s  Daughter  ....  243 

The  Orphan  Boy  Kills  Beaver . 244 

The  Moose  that  Had  Been  a  Man . 244 

Wonyoni  Avenges  the  Death  of  his  Sons . 245 

The  Revenge  of  Wonyoni . 247 

Wonyoni  Escapes  from  the  Cree  . . 248 

A  Young  Man  is  Taken  to  Another  World  by  Fledgling  Geese  .  248 

The  Woman  who  Discovered  Copper . 249 

Crow  Monopolizes  the  Game  ........  250 

A  Man  is  Carried  away  by  a  Giant  Bird  .  .  .  .  .251 

The  Underwater  People . 251 

The  Beaver  who  Went  Home  with  a  Cree  —  First  Version  .  .  252 

The  Beaver  who  Went  Home  with  a  Cree  —  Second  Version  .  .  253 

A  Man  Marries  the  Daughter  of  a  Bird  .....  254 

A  Man  Turns  into  a  Squirrel  and  Escapes  from  a  Bear  .  .  255 

Watc’agic  Kills  the  Dancing  Birds . 256 

The  Earth  Recovered  by  Diving  .......  256 

The  Giant  Beaver  and  Muskrat . 257 

The  Redeeming  of  a  Doomed  Man . 257 

The  Equally  Matched  Magicians . 258 

A  Magician  Cuts  his  Throat  with  Impunity . 258 

A  Magician  Spends  a  Winter  in  a  Lake . 259 

A  Magician  Escapes  the  Cree  by  Turning  into  a  Buffalo  .  .  259 

Fournier’s  Grandfather’s  Supernatural  Power  ....  260 

Thunderbirds . 260 

The  Boy  who  was  Cared  for  by  the  Wolf . 260 

The  Loaned  Hunting  Dog . 261 

The  Hunting  Fetish . 262 


205 


206  Anthropological  Papers  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  X, 

Page. 

The  Man  who  Talked  to  the  Buffalo . 262 

The  Potency  of  War  Songs .  263 

Thr  Curing  of  a  Woman  with  a  Medicine  Lodge  .  263 

The  Medicine  Lodge . 263 

The  Man  who  Entered  a  Fish  .  ...  264 

The  Man  who  Wintered  without  Food  264 

The  Origin  of  Mosquitoes . 264 

The  Killing  of  the  Large  Human  Mosquitoes  264 

The  Shiftless  Husband . 265 

A  Young  Man  Carries  about  Fire  all  Winter  ...  266 

A  Man  Overcomes  Obstacles  in  Rescuing  his  Sisters  .  267 

A  Stolen  Wife  is  Recovered  from  beyond  the  Sea  .  .  268 

The  Treacherous  Wife .  270 

A  Woman  Agrees  to  Betray  her  Sons  to  the  Cree  .  .  271 

A  Man  Avenges  his  Son-in-Law  .......  272 

An  Old  Man  Escapes  a  Plot  only  to  be  Killed  in  Revenge  273 

A  Man  Wins  his  Faithless  Wives  by  Wrestling  .  .  273 

The  Rival  Husbands . 274 

A  Young  Man  Tries  to  Escape  the  Responsibility  of  Parenthood  .  275 

Torturing  the  Enemy . 276 

Two  Brothers  Escape  the  Enemy  by  Flight  ...  276 

A  Man  and  his  Wife  are  Saved  by  Lightning  .  .  277 

A  Beaver  Kills  an  Entire  Band  of  Cree  ....  278 

A  Man  Saves  his  Parents-in-law  from  Starving  ....  279 

A  Man,  Frightened  by  his  Wife,  Kills  Swimming  Caribou  .  .  280 
An  Entire  Band  is  Killed  by  the  Cree  ...  .  280 

A  Cree,  Caught  Alone,  is  Killed  by  the  Beaver  .  281 

A  Man  Scares  off  the  Cree  with  a  Gun  .  .  .  .  .281 

The  Beaver,  their  Arrows  having  been  used  on  Buffalo,  are 

Killed  by  the  Cree .  .281 

A  Man  and  his  Wife  Alone  Escape  the  Cree  ...  282 

A  Woman  Hides  Bear  Meat  from  her  Starving  Husband  .  .  282 

Starving  Beaver  Visit  the  Rocky  Mountains  ....  282 

Fournier’s  Family  Escapes  Starvation  ....  283 

The  Escape  of  the  Brothers  from  the  Beaver  Lodge  .  .  283 

The  Killing  of  the  Children  Avenged . 284 

The  Killing  of  the  Women  Avenged . 284 

A  Man  Finds  Beaver  in  Small  Places . 285 

Putting  the  Enemy  to  Sleep  by  Magic  .....  285 

A  Blind  Man’s  Attempt  at  Defence  ....  .  286 

A  Battle  on  an  Island  —  First  Version . 287 

A  Battle  on  an  Island  —  Second  Version  .  288 

A  Dog-Rib  Kills  Some  Men . 288 

The  Killing  of  the  Trader  at  Fort  St.  John  — -  First  Version  289 

The  Killing  of  the  Trader  at  Fort  St.  John  — -  Second  Version  .  289 

Childbirth  Customs . 289 

A  Description  of  Primitive  Life  .......  290 

Hunting  Experiences  —  Dunvegan  Dialect  ....  290 

Dispersion  of  the  Tribes  —  Dunvegan  Dialect  ....  292 

BIBLIOGRAPHY . 293 


1916.]  Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians.  207 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Text  Figures. 

Page. 

1.  Beaver  Camp  near  Dunvegan  .  .  .  .  .  .  .211 

2.  Drying  Fruit  for  Winter  Use  .  .  .  .  .211 

3.  Bag  of  Rawhide  used  in  Pairs  for  packing  Horses  ....  213 

4.  Bag  made  by  piecing  together  the  Legskins  of  the  Caribou  .  213 

5.  Call  used  to  Imitate  the  Cry  of  Young  Rabbits  .....  214 

6.  Moose  Call  of  Birchbark  .........  215 

7.  Fish  Weir  across  Paddle  River  at  a  Low  Stage  of  Water  ....  217 

8.  The  Trap  in  a  nearer  View  with  Fish  still  in  it  .  .  .217 

9.  Soft-soled  Moccasin  of  Mooseskin  decorated  with  Silk  ...  218 

10.  Simple  Bow  of  Willow;  Arrow  of  Birch  with  Moosehorn  Head  .  219 

11-12.  Net  Needle  and  partly  made  Net  with  the  Mesh  Stick  in  Place  .  220 

13.  Skin  Dressing  Tools .  220 

14.  Vessel  of  Birchbark  sewed  with  Spruce  Root  .  .221 

15-16.  Infant  Aerial  Burials  .......  .  223 

17.  Skin  stretched  on  Frame  during  Skin  Dressing  Process  .  .  225 

18.  Modern  Burials  .........  225 

19.  Medicine  Poles  near  Fort  St.  John  .  229 


ETHNOLOGICAL  NOTES. 


The  Beaver  Indians  occupy  the  region  of  the  Peace  River  from  the 
eastern  base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  in  British  Columbia  along  the  Peace 
River  to  the  falls  about  forty  miles  below  Vermilion.  They  now  exist 
in  three  geographical  groups. 

Trading  at  Fort  St.  John  are  one  hundred  and  two  individuals  according 
to  the  report  of  the  Canadian  Government  for  1914.  They  hunt  northward 
to  the  headwaters  of  the  Liard  River  and  camp  as  far  down  the  Peace  as 
the  North  Pine  River  where  the  first  trading  post  for  them  was  established.1 
They  are  now  in  three  small  bands  each  with  a  headman.  In  many  respects 
they  are  more  primitive  than  either  of  the  other  two  groups.  Mackenzie 
called  this  group  the  Rocky  Mountain  Indians.2  They  are  known  to  the 
Vermilion  Beaver  as,  Tsa€t’u. 

About  Dunvegan  are  still  one  hundred  and  thirty  Beaver,  now  settled 
on  a  reserve  about  fifteen  miles  north  from  the  river.  Until  a  generation 
ago  they  used  to  live  on  both  sides  of  the  river  under  one  chief  and  gathered 
on  the  flat  by  the  river  at  Dunvegan  for  their  semi-annual  reunion.  They 
hunted  northward  to  the  headwaters  of  Hay  River  where  they  often  met 
Beaver  from  Vermilion  and  Fort  St.  John,  but  not  the  Slavey  of  middle 
and  lower  Hay  River.  They  also  occupied  considerable  territory  south  of 
Peace  River.  They  say  there  were  no  Indians  living  between  themselves 
and  the  Fort  St.  John  Indians  on  North  Pine  River. 

Near  Vermilion  are  one  hundred  and  forty-eight  Beaver  Indians  forming 
one  political  unit  under  a  chief  recognized  by  the  Canadian  Government. 
They  live  on  a  reserve  along  Paddle  River,  and  hunt  and  trap  westward 
toward  Hay  Lake,  and  north  and  eastward  toward  the  Caribou  Mountains. 

There  was  formerly  a  considerable  band  near  Peace  River  Crossing  for 
whom  trading  posts  were  established  about  1790.  It  was  with  this  band 
that  Mackenzie  spent  the  winter  of  1792-3  before  setting  out  for  the  Pacific. 
There  are  a  few  individuals  of  this  band  still  living.  John  Bourassa,  who 
served  as  an  interpreter,  learned  the  Beaver  language  here  where  his  father 
was  married  to  a  mixed  blood.  Between  this  group  and  those  near  Ver¬ 
milion  there  are  said  to  have  been  no  early  settlements  of  Beaver. 

The  Athapascan-speaking  neighbors  of  the  Beaver  are  the  Chipewyan 
of  Lake  Athabasca  to  the  east;  the  Slavey  to  the  north  on  lower  Hay  River 


1  For  the  destruction  of  this  post  see  p.  28,  below. 

2  Mackenzie,  145. 


208 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


209 


and  upper  Liard  River;  and  the  Sekani  (Tsek’ene)  of  the  Rocky  Mountains 
to  the  west. 

There  were  Cree  living  on  Lesser  Slave  Lake  when  Mackenzie  first 
visited  Peace  River.  He  speaks  of  the  war  road  of  the  Cree  from  that  lake 
to  Peace  River  Crossing  and  mentions  frequently  the  conflicts  between  the 
Cree  and  the  Beaver.  In  Mackenzie’s  general  account  of  the  natives  of 
western  Canada  he  expresses  his  belief  that  the  Cree  had  moved  westward 
in  comparatively  recent  times.1  This  statement  apparently  reflects  a  con¬ 
clusion  reached  from  the  distribution  of  the  tribes  as  they  were  then  and  is 
not  based  on  any  definite  information  as  to  the  actual  movements.  A 
Beaver  Indian  of  Dunvegan  said  that  his  grandfather  told  him  that  another 
tribe  (meaning  an  Athapascan-speaking  one)  used  to  live  on  Lesser  Slave 
Lake  and  that  it  had  died  out.  After  that  the  Cree  occupied  the  region 
because  of  the  fish  to  be  had  there.2 

The  antiquity  of  the  Cree  occupation  is  a  matter  of  considerable  interest 
because  the  Cree  of  Alberta  separate  the  Beaver  from  the  Assiniboin, 
Blackfoot,  and  Sarsi  tribes  of  the  Saskatchewan  region,  all  having  a  Plains 
culture.  The  Sarsi  furthermore  are  Athapascan-speaking,  and  as  far  as 
phonetics  are  concerned  the  Sarsi  language  is  more  nearly  akin  to  Beaver 
than  to  any  other  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  It  has  been  generally 
believed  and  sometimes  stated  that  the  Beaver  and  Sarsi  separated  only  a 
short  time  ago.  This  assumption  is  based  on  two  mutually  contradictory 
Indian  folk  narratives.  The  Sarsi  account  has  to  do  with  the  breaking  of 
the  ice  as  the  band  was  marching  across  the  lake.  Those  caught  behind 
the  break  remained  to  become  the  Beaver;  those  who  had  already  passed 
became  the  Sarsi ;  and  those  at  the  exact  spot  became  the  underwater  people. 
The  Beaver  narrative  tells  of  a  battle  and  the  withdrawal  of  the  defeated 
party.  The  informant  who  gave  the  version  which  appears  upon  page  292 
believed  this  to  have  happened  at  the  beginning  of  the  world  when  the  tribes 
and  languages  were  first  differentiated,  a  Tower  of  Babel  story.3 

It  is  usual  to  find  transitional  tribes  on  the  border  of  all  well-defined  cul¬ 
ture  areas  like  that  of  the  Plains.  The  Sarsi  and  Blackfoot  are  typical 
Plains  Indians  of  the  northern  type.  The  Beaver  are  definitely  of  the 
northern  or  Mackenzie  culture  area.  The  Cree,  however,  south  of  Edmon¬ 
ton,  are  Plains-like  with  a  sun  dance,  etc.,  and  north  of  Edmonton  transi- 


1  Mackenzie,  LXXII,  LXXXI,  146. 

2  I  told  the  chief  I  had  heard  Lesser  Slave  Lake  was  Beaver  country,  what  did  he  know 
about  it.  He  said,  “There  used  to  be  another  tribe  there  (Beaver)  but  they  died  out  and  the 
Cree  came  in  on  Account  of  the  fish.  It  was  the  only  place  they  could  get  fish.”  I  asked  how 
long  ago.  The  chief  said,  “I  did  not  mean  to  say  I  knew  it  was  so  but  that  was  what  my 
grandfather  told  me.” 

3  Goddard,  (C),  267  and  p.  292  below. 


210 


Anthropological  Papers  American  Museum,  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  X, 


tional  toward  the  north,  but  with  many  traits  similar  to  those  of  the  Eastern 
Cree. 

The  Beaver  Indians  on  Peace  River  were  not  in  direct  contact  with 
Europeans  until  about  1786,  although  they  had  felt  the  indirect  influence  of 
fur  traders  for  some  years  before  that  date.  A  trading  post  was  established 
on  the  Athabasca  River  about  thirty  miles  south  of  Lake  Athabasca  in 
1778.  Traders  of  the  various  companies  had  visited  the  Saskatchewan 
further  south  since  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Even  before 
that  early  date  objects  of  European  manufacture  had  been  brought  west¬ 
ward  from  Fort  Churchill  on  Hudson’s  Bay  by  the  Cree.  This  indirect 
influence  manifested  itself  chiefly,  as  far  as  can  be  determined,  through  the 
better  arms  possessed  by  these  Cree  neighbors  of  the  Beaver.  This  fact 
is  referred  to  in  several  of  the  narratives  included  in  this  volume.  The 
bows,  arrows,  and  spears  could  not  compete  with  flintlock  muskets.  Accord¬ 
ing  to  Mackenzie,  the  Beaver  first  secured  arms  in  1782.  Ten  years  later, 
when  Mackenzie  wintered  near  Peace  River  Crossing,  bows  and  arrows  were 
but  little  used.1 


Shelter. 

The  ordinary  dwelling  of  the  Beaver  was  a  tipi  of  the  general  Northern 
or  Chipewyan  type.  It  has  a  three-pole  foundation  but  these  poles  are 
usually  not  tied  at  the  place  of  crossing  as  is  the  case  in  the  Plains,  since 
they  are  either  forked  or  have  projecting  limbs  so  that  they  interlock.2 
The  tops  of  the  remaining  poles  which  make  up  the  foundation  rest  in  the 
top  of  this  tripod.  Suitable  poles  are  easily  secured  in  the  north  and  are 
not  ordinarily  moved  from  place  to  place  but  are  left  standing.  Old  camp 
grounds  are  marked  by  these  poles  which  in  sheltered  situations  stand  for 
several  years. 

The  cover  of  the  tipi  in  former  days  was  made  of  the  skins  of  the  caribou 
or  moose.  In  one  .story  Agait’osdunne  wishes  for  thirteen  caribou  skins 
from  which  a  new  tipi  could  be  made.3  Mackenzie  speaks  of  tipi  covers 
as  mooseskins,  which  are  also  said  to  have  been  in  use  in  the  Fort  St.  John 
region  until  recently.  It  seems  queer  that  no  mention  is  made  of  the  use 
of  buffalo  skins,  which  were  ordinarily  used  for  this  purpose  in  the  Plains, 
since  the  animals  were  plentiful  in  parts  of  the  Beaver  territory.  The 


1  Mackenzie,  146. 

2  It  was  noted  that  in  one  case  a  slip  noose  had  been  drawn  around  all  the  poles  at  their 
place  of  crossing  and  fastened  to  a  stake  outside  the  tipi  to  prevent  the  upsetting  of  the  tipi 
in  strong  winds. 

Page  240. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


211 


Fig.  1.  Beaver  Camp  near  Dunvegan. 
Fig.  2.  Drying  Fruit  for  Winter  Use. 


212  Anthropological  Papers  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  X, 

striking  difference  in  appearance  between  the  tipis  of  the  north  and  those 
of  the  Plains  is  that  the  cover  of  the  latter  fits  closely  around  the  crossing 
of  the  poles  which  are  so  placed  as  to  occupy  as  little  space  as  possible. 
The  cover  of  the  northern  tipi  leaves  a  considerable  opening  at  the  top 
(Figs.  1  and  2). 

Temporary  camps  in  summer  are  made  by  throwing  together  trees 
with  the  leaves  on  them  so  that  they  rest  upon  a  tripod  foundation.  Trap¬ 
pers  and  other  travelers  overtaken  in  winter  away  from  tipis  build  wind¬ 
breaks  of  brush  which  in  addition  to  keeping  off  the  wind  reflect  back  the 
heat  of  the  fire. 


Transportation. 

Because  of  the  great  distances  and  sparse  population  of  the  north, 
the  matter  of  transportation  is  an  important  one.  For  property  this  is  in 
a  large  measure  avoided  by  means  of  caches.  Each  family,  or  larger  band, 
visits  the  same  localities  at  different  seasons  each  year.  In  spring  the 
property  pertaining  to  life  in  winter  is  stored  out  of  the  reach  of  animals, 
usually  in  thick  timber,  but  sometimes  on  a  platform  supported  by  four  or 
more  posts.  The  customs  of  the  country  are  such  that  only  the  most 
shameless  of  men  will  take  anything  from  such  a  cache.  The  wolverine 
gives  the  greatest  trouble,  for,  according  to  the  testimony  of  both  Indians 
and  whites,  that  animal  will  rob  a  cache  as  a  mere  piece  of  mischief,  or  if 
he  cannot  do  that  he  will  defile  it  from  above  if  possible.  The  stories 
mention  food  stored  in  caches  to  which  starving  bands  resorted.1 

In  summer,  canoes  were  used  for  water  travel.  These  were  built  of 
birchbark  or  sprucebark  on  a  frame  after  the  Chipewyan  and  Cree  method. 
When  the  spruce  was  used  a  single  piece  of  bark  was  sufficient  for  a  small 
canoe-.  It  was  folded,  sewed  at  each  end  and  provided  with  a  proper  frame 
of  wood.  No  canoes  of  bark  were  seen  among  the  Beaver,  but  their  neigh¬ 
bors,  the  Slavey  of  Hay  River,  had  both  kinds  in  use  and  one  of  birchbark 
was  building.  Mackenzie  mentions  canoes  of  sprucebark.2 

Horses  have  been  introduced  rather  recently  among  the  Beaver.  In 
summer,  goods  were  transported  overland  packed  on  the  backs  of  dogs  or 
carried  by  the  Indians.  Mackenzie  remarks  on  the  heavy  loads  carried 
by  the  Beaver  women.3  The  travois  seems  not  to  have  been  used  by  the 
Beaver. 


1  Pp.  275,  279. 

2  Mackenzie,  207. 

3  Mackenzie,  147. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


213 


In  winter  the  toboggan  is  used.  This  is  made  of  two  thin  boards  bent 
in  a  curve  at  the  front  and  fastened  together  by  crossbars  attached  to  the 
upper  side.  Mackenzie  mentions  that  this  was  drawn  by  the  Indians. 
The  Chipewyan  of  Cold  Lake  say  that  dog  traction  is  recent.1  It  is  common 
at  the  present  time;  each  household  has  its  dog  train  which  is  kept  closely 
tied  up  during  the  summer. 

Snowshoes  of  the  Chipewyan  type  are  used.  They  are  long  and  narrow 
in  distinction  from  the  Cree  type  of  nearly  circular  shoes.2 

Food  and  small  objects  are  stored  and  transported  in  large  square  bags 
made  of  skin  with  the  hair  left  on.  These  are  often  made  of  the  legskins 


Fig.  3  (50.1-7703).  Bag  of  Raw  hide  used  in  Pairs  for  packing  Horses. 

Fig.  4  (50.1-7662).  Bag  made  by  piecing  together  the  Legskins  of  the  Caribou. 


of  the  caribou  pieced  together  (Fig.  4),  or  of  the  headskins  of  the  moose. 
For  packing  horses  large  bags  of  similar  shape  are  made  of  rawhide  in  pairs, 
one  for  each  side  of  the  horse  (Fig.  3).  They  serve  much  the  same  purpose 
as  the  rectangular  parfleche  of  the  Plains. 

Food. 

The  struggle  to  secure  a  sufficient  supply  of  food  seems  to  have  been 
especially  severe  for  the  Beaver.  In  many  of  the  stories  given  below  the 
statement  is  made  that  the  band  in  question  was  starving.  They  prac¬ 
tised  no  agriculture.  The  vegetable  food  was  formerly  limited  to  choke- 
cherries,  saskatoon,  and  other  berries,  and  probably  a  few  roots.  These 
berries  are  dried  in  the  sun  and  stored  for  winter  use  (Fig.  2).  The  inner 
bark  of  certain  trees  was  also  eaten.3 


1  Hearne  describes  similar  sledges  as  used  by  the  ‘ '  Copper  Indians '  ’  of  his  day  and  speaks 
of  them  as  being  drawn  by  the  Indians,  although  he  mentions  that  dogs  were  sometimes  used 
for  traction,  pp.  323-5. 

2  Page  281. 

3  Mackenzie,  165. 


214 


Anthropological  Papers  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Yol.  X, 


One  of  the  important  food  supplies  is  the  large  hare,  or  rabbit,  as  it  is 
commonly  called.  These  are  generally  snared  by  placing  a  slip  noose 
stretched  in  the  runways  and  attached  to  a  spring  pole  so  that  the  heedless 
rabbit  pulls  it  loose  and  is  thrown  into  the  air.  The  women  often  tend  these 
snares,  and  when  rabbits  are  plentiful  food  of  some  sort  may  be  had  by 
everyone.  But  these  rabbits  die  off  periodically  from  some  unknown  cause. 
It  is  probable  too  that  before  the  carnivorous  animals  were  so  generally 


trapped  for  fur,  the  enemies  of  the  hare  were 
more  numerous  and  the  hares  themselves 
less  plentiful.  In  summer  when  there  are 
young  rabbits  their  cries  are  imitated,  either 
with  or  without  a  rabbit  call  (Fig.  5),  and 
when  the  mother  bounds  out  she  is  shot. 

Next  to  rabbits  the  beaver  was  proba¬ 
bly  the  most  dependable  of  the  game  ani¬ 
mals.  The  rainfall  is  not  very  great,  but  the  country  is  flat  and  the 
drainage  poor;  evaporation  is  also  comparatively  slight.  The  beaver  ap¬ 
pear  to  have  remade  much  of  the  country  by  damming  the  small  streams, 
forming  ponds  from  which  canals  extended  in  some  cases  many  yards  to 
small  groves  from  which  the  beaver  secured  their  food.  The  more  usual 
method  of  taking  beaver  was  to  set  up  a  row  of  poles  forming  a  fence  near 
the  entrance  to  the  lodge  to  prevent  their  escape.  A  hole  was  then  chiseled 
through  the  top  of  the  beaver  house  and  the  animals  killed  with  a  spear. 
In  winter  the  task  was  a  tedious  one  since  the  ground  was  solidly  frozen. 

When  Mackenzie  first  passed  up  the  Peace  River  he  reported  the  plains 
bordering  the  river  covered  with  numerous  herds  of  buffalo  and  elk.1  The 
buffalo  seem  to  have  been  hunted  solely  on  a  community  basis.  The  story 
of  Agait’osdunne 2  indicates  very  grave  penalties  for  anyone  who  interfered 
with  the  community  rights.  The  usual  method  was  that  of  driving  the 
animals  into  a  pound. 

Caribou  seem  not  to  have  been  so  generally  distributed  over  the  Beaver 
territory.  They  ar  particularly  numerous  in  a  range  of  mountains  north 
of  the  falls  of  Peace  River,  Caribou  Mountains,  where  the  Vermilion  band 
often  go  to  hunt  them.  They  are  shot,  and  killed  while  swimming  streams 
and  lakes.3  No  reference  appears  to  driving  them  to  frozen  lakes  and 
pounds  although  it  is  probable  that  method  was  also  followed. 

Bears  are  particularly  numerous  along  Peace  River  and  were  so  in 
Mackenzie’s  time.  The  grizzlies  are  now  nearly  extinct.  According  to  the 


Fig.  5  (50.1—7656).  Call  used  to 
imitate  the  Cry  of  Young  Rabbits 
to  bring  the  Mother  Rabbit  into 
View. 


1  Mackenzie,  pp.  130,  154-5,  163. 

2  Pp.  238,  241. 

»  P.  280. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


215 


stories,1  black  bears  found  in  their  dens  in  winter  relieved  and  often  saved 
starving  travelers.  They  were  killed  with  deadfalls  and  possibly  shot  with 
arrows.  They  are  now  killed  with  guns. 

The  largest  and  most  generally  distributed  of  the  game  animals  was  the 
moose.  Throughout  the  greater  part  of  the  Beaver  country  there  are  a 
great  many  swamps,  to  the  primitive  number  and  size  of  which  the  many 
beaver  have  added  considerably.  There  are  also  large  tracts  of  timber 
especially  along  the  streams  and  on  the  islands.  Moose  were  always  living 
in  such  places,  but  not  even  the  best  hunter  was  certain  of  approaching  close 
enough  to  kill  one.  Perhaps  in  the  case  of  no  other  animal  were  the  game 
and  the  hunter  so  evenly  matched  in  perceptions  and  cunning.2  In  every 
large  band  there  were  always  a  few  Indians  who  lacked  sufficient  keenness, 
patience,  and  endurance  to  secure  moose.  Men  of  this  sort  are  mentioned 
in  the  stories,  and  such  men  are  still  found  among  the  Beaver.  In  contrast 
to  these,  there  were  a  few  very  skilful  hunters  whose  success  was  attributed 
to  supernatural  power,  or  to  what  really  amounts  to  the  same  thing,  a  sup- 


Fig.  6  (50.1-7658).  Moose  Call  of  Birchbark. 


posed  inclination  of  the  moose  toward  the  hunter.  With  the  average  men, 
the  majority,  the  contest  was  so  even  that  what  is  known  as  hunter’s  luck 
played  a  prominent  part.  When  conditions  were  unfavorable  and  no 
moose  were  secured,  in  the  absence  of  other  food,  the  situation  was 
desperate.  The  first  day  a  hunter  without  food  starts  out  with  a  fair 
prospect  of  being  able  to  kill  a  moose.  He  is  able  to  travel  twenty  or  thirty 
miles  and  has  a  good  chance  of  finding  the  track  of  a  moose,  which  he  may 
follow  to  success.  The  second  day  the  chances  are  considerably  less  and 
by  the  third  or  fourth  day  the  exertion  and  cold  without  a  supply  of  food 
has  completely  worn  him  out.  For  this  reason  the  hunters  in  a  time  of 
starvation  were  the  first  to  die,  and  the  women  and  children,  not  having 
exerted  themselves,  survived. 

During  the  mating  season  of  the  moose  their  ordinary  caution  is  in  abey¬ 
ance.  A  skilful  hunter  imitates  the  call  of  one  sex  and  some  member  of  the 


1  Pp.  278,  282. 

2  P.  215. 


216  Anthropological  Papers  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  X, 

opposite  sex  will  rush  up  in  answer  to  the  call.  A  cone-shaped  trumpet 
of  birchbark  is  used  in  making  these  calls  (Fig.  6).  If  the  bushes  be  scraped 
with  a  dry  shoulder  blade  any  bull  moose  within  hearing  will  answer  the 
challenge.  A  hunter  on  snowshoes  after  a  heavy  fall  of  snow  also  has  great 
advantage  over  moose.1 

When  game  failed,  bands  of  Indians  went  together  to  fish  lakes  which 
according  to  the  stories,  were  also  visited  by  the  Cree,  their  enemies.  These 
lakes  abound  south  and  east  of  Peace  River.  There  are  also  many  lakes 
and  sloughs  in  the  country  north  and  west  of  Peace  River  but  not  many 
of  them  have  edible  fish.  In  winter  time  the  fish  were  taken  with  a  hook 
and  line  let  down  through  a  hole  cut  in  the  ice.  In  the  spring  when  certain 
varieties  of  fish  were  migrating,  walls  of  stone  were  built  out  from  each  shore 
of  the  smaller  streams  converging  in  the  center  where  a  trap  was  placed 
made  of  poles  placed  lengthwise  of  the  stream.  The  water  falling  through 
between  the  poles  left  the  fish  helpless  (Figs.  7,  8).  Fish  were  also  taken 
in  seines  stretched  in  the  river  where  there  was  an  eddy.  The  bottom  of  the 
net  was  weighted  with  stones  and  the  top  supported  with  floats.  Stakes 
driven  in  the  river  were  used  for  attaching  the  two  ends  of  the  net. 


Clothing. 

Very  little  information  was  obtained  concerning  clothing.  Judging 
from  dolls  said  to  be  dressed  in  the  old  style,  it  appears  that  the  man’s 
winter  garment  is  a  long  coat  or  parka  reaching  nearly  to  the  knees  made  of 
mooseskin  with  the  hair  outside.  The  sleeves  were  fitted  on  and  the  hood 
sewed  to  the  garment.  The  coat  was  held  in  place  by  a  belt  and  was  prob¬ 
ably  fastened  along  the  opening  in  front  by  tying  with  strings  or  with  loops 
and  toggles.  The  summer  garment  was  probably  skin,  dressed  without  the 
hair.  The  legs  were  protected  by  long  leggings  fastened  to  an  inner  belt 
which  also  supported  the  breecheloth.  This  article  of  clothing  was  a  broad 
strip  of  soft  tanned  leather  passing  between  the  legs  and  under  the  belt 
both  before  and  behind.  Moccasins  of  the  soft  sole  variety  are  still  worn 
not  only  by  the  Beaver  and  Cree  but  also  by  the  white  men  of  the  North. 

These  moccasins  (Fig.  9)  consist  of  four  pieces  of  soft  tanned  mooseskin. 
The  main  piece  has  the  seam  beginning  on  the  lower  side  about  an  inch 
from  the  tip  of  the  toe,  running  over  the  toe  and  up  the  median  line  of  the 
foot  about  halfway  to  the  ankle.  To  this  piece  around  the  sides  and  back 
is  sewed  a  band  about  five  inches  wide  which  wraps  around  the  ankle.  This 


Page  260. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


217 


Fig.  7.  Fish  Weir  across  Paddle  River  at  a  Low  Stage  of  Water. 
Fig.  8.  The  Trap  in  a  nearer  View  with  Fish  still  in  it. 


218 


Anthropological  Papers  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  X, 


is  bound  in  place  by  passing  both  ends  of  a  long  string  several  times  around 
the  ankle,  cross-lacing.  The  main  portion  of  this  string  passes  around  the 
moccasin  just  below  the  seam  which  fastens  the  band  to  the  sole.  To  keep 
the  string  in  place  it  is  passed  through  the  mooseskin  for  a  space  of  one-half 
inch,  once  either  side  of  the  heel  and  once  in  front.  On  the  instep  is  an 
inserted  piece  of  mooseskin  usually  decorated  with  silk.  The  decoration 
consists  of  three  different  colored  rows  of  silk  closely  wrapped  around  a  core 
of  stiff  hair.  These  rows  cover  the  seam,  and  border  the  inserted  piece. 
The  lower  part  of  this  piece  is  further  decorated  with  flower  designs  worked 
in  silk.  The  fourth  piece  going  to  make  up  the  moccasin  is  attached  under 


Fig.  9  (50. 1-7 691b).  Soft-soled  Moccasin  of  Moose  skin  decorated  with  Silk. 

the  decorated  insert  and  comes  well  up  the  ankle  under  the  lapping  of  the 
upper  band.  It  is  of  thick  mooseskin,  usually  a  piece  which  has  seen  previ¬ 
ous  service,  and  is  inserted  to  protect  the  ankle  from  the  pressure  of  the 
string.  These  moccasins  are  very  comfortable  and  wear  well  as  long  as  they 
are  kept  dry.  When  used  in  the  water,  as  when  tracking  a  canoe,  they  last 
barely  a  day. 

During  the  cold  weather  gloves  are  worn.  Several  pairs  are  in  the 
collection  but  in  pattern  they  seem  to  be  imitations  of  gloves  of  European 
manufacture.  They  are  generally  decorated  on  the  back  with  silk. 

The  garments  on  the  doll  obtained  representing  a  woman  are  evidently 
not  cut  according  to  the  old  style  and  no  exact  information  as  to  woman’s 
dress  is  available. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians*. 


219 


Industrial  Arts. 


The  former  fire-making  method  among  the  Beaver  was  striking  together 
stones.1  One  of  the  tales  is  about  a  man  so  shiftless 
he  neglected  to  provide  himself  with  such  stones  until 
snow  fall.  The  firedrill  seems  to  be  unknown. 

The  main  arts  of  the  men  were  concerned  with 
the  making  of  weapons,  the  frames  of  snowshoes,  and 
toboggans.  The  bow  purchased  was  a  simple  one 
made  of  willow;  the  arrows  were  of  birch,  with  a 
cylindrical  head  of  moose  horn  (Fig.  10).  Arrow¬ 
heads  of  flint  were  of  course  used  where  great  pene¬ 
tration  was  necessary. 

Woodwork  of  all  sorts  is  now  done  with  the  aid  of 
the  crooked  knife  which  was  introduced  on  Hudson 
Bay  by  the  traders  and  is  now  used  by  Indians  en¬ 
tirely  across  the  continent.  Before  iron  was  in  use, 
knives  were  made  of  moose  horn  which  hardens  with 
age.  The  incisor  teeth  of  beaver  in  place  in  the  skull 
were  also  used  in  woodwork. 

Considerable  wood-working  skill  is  required  in 
making  canoes  and  sledges.  No  such  work  was  ob¬ 
served  in  progress  among  the  Beaver  and  therefore 
no  description  can  be  given.  Nets  (Figs.  11,  12)  for 
fishing  were  made  from  the  inner  bark  of  an  uniden¬ 
tified  shrub.  These  nets  were  probably  made  by  the 
men  but  that  was  not  definitely  ascertained. 

The  women  dress  the  skins  after  the  usual  method. 

The  tools  (Fig.  13)  are  of  a  form  different  from  those 
found  among  the  Plains  Indians.  For  scraping,  in¬ 
stead  of  the  elkliorn  handle  and  blade  placed  at  right 
angles  to  it  an  S-shaped  implement  is  used.  The 
flesher  is  made  of  the  legbone  of  a  moose.  Skins  are 
usually  stretched  in  a  frame  for  dressing  instead  of 
pegging  them  out  on  the  ground.  The  women  make 
the  clothing  from  these  skins,  and,  in  former  times, 
the  tipi  covers  as  well.  The  women  lace  the  snow-  Fig.  10  (so.i-7664a). 

shoes  after  the  frame  has  been  prepared  by  the  men.  Simple  Bow  of  Willow; 
mi  l  i  .  i  i  •  v  i  i  i  •  ,  jp,  Arrow  of  Birch  with 

lhey  also  make  the  birchbark  dishes  used  for  house-  Moosehorn  Head. 


1  These  may  have  l#3en  both  iron  pyrites,  or  one  pyrites,  and  the  other  flint. 


220 


Anthropological  Papers  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  X, 


Figs.  11  and  12  (50.1-7673,  50.1-7672).  Net  Needle  and  partly  made  Net  with  the 
Mesh  Stick  in  Place. 


Fig.  13  a(50.1-7687),  6(50.1-7701),  c(50. 1-7704).  Skin  Dressing  Tools:  a  is  a  form  not 
used  by  the  Plains  Indians;  6  and  c  are  the  bone  implements  common  to  the  Plains  in  the 
north. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


221 


hold  purposes.  These  are  cut  in  certain  shapes,  folded  to  form  the  vessels 
and  sewed  in  place  with  spruce  roots  (Fig.  14).  They  are  decorated  by 
incised  lines  and  applied  borders  cut  in  certain  forms.  This  and  certain 
silkwork  designs  on  moccasins  and  gloves  are  the  only  remaining  decorative 
arts.  Their  neighbors,  the  Slavey,  do  beautiful  porcupine  quillwork  and  it 
is  probable  the  Beaver  once  had  the  art. 


Social  Organization. 

As  far  as  could  be  determined,  the  social  organization  of  the  Beaver  is 
like  that  of  the  Mackenzie  culture  area  generally,  meager  and  loose. 

Marriage  took  place  at  an  early  age,  “As  soon  as  big  enough”  the 
informant  said,  which  probably  means  soon  after  puberty.  Presents  are 
made  to  the  father  of  the  girl,  and  to  the  girl  herself  at  intervals  for  a  year 
or  two  before  marriage.  The  determination  of  the  matter  is  in  the  hands  of 
the  girl’s  parents,  who  need  not  consult  the  wishes  of  the  young  people; 
but  they,  in  their  turn,  occasionally  marry 
without  anyone’s  permission.  The  young 
man  seems  invariably  to  have  made  his 
home  with  the  bride’s  parents.  The  father- 
in-law  depended  in  a  large  measure  upon  the 
hunting  of  the  son-in-law  for  the  support  of 
the  family.  It  is  said  that  in  earlier  times 
father-in-law  and  son-in-law  addressed  each 
other  in  the  dual,  a  polite  form  of  language 
also  characteristic  of  the  Athapascans  in 
California  and  the  Southwest.  It  was  not 
considered  proper  for  them  to  look  at  each 
other  directly.  Two  wives  were  not  uncommon  and  the  informant  knew 
one  man  who  had  three  wives.  The  sharing  of  one  woman  between  two 
men  also  existed.  Of  this  there  are  several  illustrations  in  the  stories.  The 
custom  of  determining  the  possession  of  a  woman,  by  wrestling,  so  often 
reported  from  the  north,  also  obtained  among  the  Beaver. 

The  information  obtained  as  to  the  descent  of  the  children  was  unsatis¬ 
factory,  chiefly  because  there  appears  to  be  nothing  concerning  which  the 
question  might  arise.  There  appear  to  be  no  clans  or  other  systems  of 
grouping  other  than  the  family  or  bands  of  relatives  camped  together.  No 
inheritable  property  or  ceremonial  possessions  were  discovered  which  would 
give  a  basis  for  inheritance,  in  fact,  or  for  the  purpose  of  discussion. 

The  information,  as  secured  in  the  words  of  the  interpreter,  follows: — 


Fig.  14  (50.1-7668).  Vessel  of 
Birchbark  sewed  with  Spruce  Root. 


222 


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“They  get  married  as  soon  as  big  enough.  Sometimes  they  ask  the  old  folks  for 
the  girl  and  some  times  the  young  folks  just  marry.  Sometimes  they  make  them  stay 
together  against  their  will.  The  boy  used  to  give  presents  to  the  father  of  the  girl 
he  wanted.  If  he  did  not  want  the  boy,  he  would  send  the  presents  back.  Tobacco 
and  pipe  to  old  man;  dress  piece  to  girl  once  in  a  while,  perhaps  for  two  years 
before  they  get  the  girl.  It  used  to  be  the  rule  for  the  man  to  go  ahead  and  the 
woman  behind;  but  now  since  they  are  married  by  a  priest  the  woman  thinks  the 
man  must  keep  her  and  now  the  women  are  bosses.  He  is  an  old  man  and  he  never 
knew  a  woman  to  go  to  the  man,  the  man  goes  to  the  woman  and  stays  with  her 
people.” 

Question:  “  Does  the  man  always  stay  with  father-in-law?  ”  Answer:  “  Of  course 
the  man  is  not  boss  of  his  son-in-law,  but  if  the  father-in-law  is  good-hearted  he  can 
always  live  on  what  his  son-in-law  kills.  Now  I  go  everywhere  my  son-in-law 
(Louisgon)  goes.” 

Q.  “Is  there  any  rule  about  the  way  son-in-law  talks  to  father-in-law?” 
Ans.  “He  talks  to  his  son-in-lawT  just  as  to  his  son,  and  his  son-in-law  talks  to  him 
that  way,  but  he  remembers  when  a  father-in-law  used  wyords  as  if  he  were  talking 
to  two  persons  instead  of  one.  The  son-in-law  speaks  the  same  way  and  so  does 
the  daughter-in-law  to  her  mother-in-law.” 

When  asked  if  they  were  bashful  toward  each  other  he  said :  “Yes,”  and  then  said, 
“They  spoke  to  them  as  if  they  were  two  not  because  they  were  bashful,  but  because 
it  was  the  fashion.” 

“  We  are  bashful  about  looking  our  son-in-lawT  straight  in  the  face.  We  talk  to 
them  all  right,  but  it  is  the  rule  not  to  look  them  in  the  face.  This  applies  to  the 
daughter-in-law  too.” 

Q.  “ How  many  wives? ”  Ans.  “His  uncle  had  three  wives.  He  often  knew 
of  two  wives  but  three  is  the  most  he  ever  heard  of.  He  has  heard  of  a  woman 
having  two  husbands  but  he  never  knew  a  case.” 

Q.  “ Do  the  children  belong  to  the  mother  or  the  father’s  folks? ”  Ans.  “They 
follow  the  father.” 

When  clans  were  explained  he  said  there  was  nothing  of  the  kind  there. 


Burial  Customs. 

There  is  evidence  that  the  Beaver  formerly  disposed  of  the  dead  by 
placing  them  in  trees  or  on  platforms.  The  bodies  were  sometimes,  perhaps 
always,  rolled  up  in  birehbark  before  being  disposed  of  in  this  way.  It  is 
said  that  sometimes  instead  of  putting  them  above  the  ground  they  were 
placed  on  it  and  small  log  houses  built  over  them.  At  Fort  St.  John,  two 
rather  recent  child  burials  in  the  air  were  seen.  In  both  cases  the  body 
was  suspended  in  a  sling  of  cloth  supported  by  a  board  placed  horizontally 
between  two  trees  (Figs.  15,  16).  At  the  present  time  the  adults  at  Fort 
St.  John  and  those  of  all  ages  at  Vermilion  are  buried  underground  and  a 
small  house  erected  over  the  grave  (Fig.  18). 

One  informant  at  Vermilion  said  that  it  used  to  be  the  custom  to  put  a 


Figs.  15  and  10.  Infant  Aerial  Burials.  A  board  is  placed  horizontally  between  two 
trees’and  the  body  suspended  in  a  sling  of  canvas. 

223 


224 


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piece  of  white  poplar  limb  on  a  grave  when  passing.  “Just  like  shaking 
hands,”  was  the  comment  in  regard  to  the  purpose  of  this  custom. 

The  mourning  customs  were  similar  to  those  of  the  Plains  Indians. 
The  woman  cut  off  finger  joints  and  cut  their  hair.  The  men  slashed  their 
nipples  and  stuck  knives  or  arrows  through  their  arms  or  legs.  The  family 
impoverished  itself  and  the  men  were  in  a  reckless  mood. 

The  information  secured  from  Ike  at  Vermilion  follows: — 

Q.  “How  did  they  used  to  show  they  were  sorry  for  their  wives  and  husbands 
when  they  lost  them?”  Ans.  “The  man  used  to  cut  off  the  forefinger,  a  joint  or 
two,  or  slash  the  nipple.  Woman  does  same  for  husband  or  cuts  all  her  hair  off.” 

Q.  “Did  they  used  to  be  afraid  of  a  new  widow?”  Ans.  “They  are  not 
afraid.  The  prophet  at  Hay  River  is  telling  the  Slavey  to  keep  away  from  such 
people.  The  Slavey  at  Hay  River  are  still  pitching  off  by  themselves  when  they  lose 
a  relative.  Now  when  they  [the  Beaver]  see  a  person  is  getting  low  they  keep  him 
clean,  wash  him  all  over,  and  change  his  clothes  often.  We  all  come  together  and 
watch  him  until  his  last  breath.  Then  we  [all  the  people  in  that  camp]  put  him  in  his 
coffin  and  watch  him  a  night  or  two,  and  then  we  all  go  with  him  and  bury  him.  We 
are  not  a  bit  afraid  now,  but  he  has  heard  that  long  ago  they  used  to  be  afraid. 

‘  ‘  He  does  not  remember  when  they  did  not  bury  in  the  ground  but  he  has  heard 
that  they  used  to  put  the  bodies  on  a  platform,  or  roll  them  up  in  birchbark  and  hang 
them  up  in  the  bush.  Sometimes  they  used  to  build  a  little  house  of  logs  and  put 
the  body  in  that  on  top  of  the  ground.”  Cardinal,  the  interpreter,  said  he  remembers 
hearing  his  aunt  say  she  saw  Beaver  put  on  platforms. 

The  direct  observations  of  Mackenzie  are  more  to  the  point. 

When  death  overtakes  any  of  them,  their  property,  as  I  have  before  observed,  is 
sacrificed  and  destroyed;  nor  is  there  any  failure  of  lamentation  or  mourning  on  such 
occasion :  they  who  are  more  nearly  related  to  the  departed  person,  black  their  faces, 
and  sometimes  cut  off  their  hair;  they  also  pierce  their  arms  with  knives  and  arrows. 
The  grief  of  the  females  is  carried  to  a  still  greater  excess;  they  not  only  cut  their  hair, 
and  cry  and  howl,  but  they  will  sometimes,  with  the  utmost  deliberation,  employ 
some  sharp  instrument  to  separate  the  nail  from  the  finger,  and  then  force  back  the 
flesh  beyond  the  first  joint,  which  they  immediately  amputate.  But  this  extraor¬ 
dinary  mark  of  affliction  is  only  displayed  on  the  death  of  a  favorite  son,  a  husband, 
or  a  father.  Many  of  the  old  women  have  so  often  repeated  this  ceremony,  that  they 
have  not  a  complete  finger  remaining  on  either  hand.  The  women  renew  their 
lamentations  at  the  graves  of  their  departed  relatives  for  a  long  succession  of  years  1 

There  was  a  lodge  of  Indians  here,  who  were  absolutely  starving  with  cold  and 
hunger.  They  had  lately  lost  a  near  relation,  and  had,  according  to  custom,  thrown 
away  every  thing  belonging  to  them,  and  even  exchanged  the  few  articles  of  raiment 
which  they  possessed,  in  order,  as  I  presume,  to  get  rid  of  everything  that  may  bring 
the  deceased  to  their  remembrance.  They  also  destroy  everything  belonging  to  any 
deceased  person,  except  what  they  consign  to  the  grave  with  the  late  owner  of  them. 
We  had  some  difficulty  to  make  them  comprehend  that  the  debts  of  a  man  who  dies 


1  Mackenzie,  148-9. 


1916. J 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


225 


Fig.  17.  Skin  stretched  on  Frame  during  Skin  Dressing  process 
Fig.  18.  Modern  Burials. 


226 


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should  be  discharged,  if  he  left  any  furs  behind  him;  but  those  who  understand  this 
principle  of  justice,  and  profess  to  adhere  to  it,  never  fail  to  prevent  the  appearance 
of  any  skins  beyond  such  as  may  be  necessary  to  satisfy  the  debts  of  their  dead  rela¬ 
tion. 


Religion. 

As  compared  with  the  Northwest,  the  Plains,  and  the  Southwest,  the 
North  is  strikingly  lacking  in  religious  ceremonials.  Those  now  discoverable 
from  the  Beaver  seem  to  accord  generally  with  what  has  been  reported 
previously  from  the  Chipewyan  and  other  tribes  of  this  region. 

It  appears  that  those  at  least  who  had  ambitions  as  hunters  or  warriors, 
and  they  probably  included  all  the  young  men,  sought  supernatural  helpers. 
It  is  only  specified  in  this  regard  that  such  young  men  did  not  drink  out  of 
vessels  but  through  a  quill  so  that  the  water  would  not  touch  their  lips,  and 
that  they  did  not  eat  the  meat  or  marrow  from  the  leg  bones  of  game,  or  the 
eggs  of  any  bird.1 2  That  the  supernatural  helper  appeared  in  dreams  is 
indicated  by  one  account  given  below.3  The  character  of  some  of  these 
helpers  appears  also  in  the  stories.  In  the  combat  between  Wonyoni  and 
Sastunazutde,4  the  former  had  beaver  skins  and  the  latter  a  buffalo 
hide.  In  another  account  an  eagle  skin  is  mentioned  as  used  in  war.5 
Mackenzie  speaks  of  the  use  of  a  feather  headdress  for  war.  In  the  story 
of  Wonyoni’s  revenge  mentioned  above,  the  father  asks  the  son  what  is  the 
nature  of  his  power.  The  boy  replies  that  it  has  to  do  with  freshly  fallen 
and  unpacked  snow,  but  he  is  not  specific  about  it.  In  the  account  of  the 
overcoming  of  the  Cree  by  a  Beaver  single-handed  it  was  inferred  by  the 
narrator  that  wind  must  have  been  the  helper.6 

For  hunting  there  is  the  mention  of  the  image  of  a  small  moose,  said 
to  be  the  gift  of  a  mother  moose  who  appeared  to  him  in  a  dream.  Since 
a  request  for  the  dream  itself  resulted  in  the  narrator’s  giving  it  with  a 
definite  locality,  there  is  reason  to  suppose  it  was  an  authentic  account, 


1  Mackenzie,  143. 

2  When  asked  to  volunteer  old  customs,  Ike  said:  “When  a  young  man  wanted  to  be  a 
good  runner  he  did  not  drink  out  of  a  kettle  or  cup  but  sucked  the  water  up  through  the  quill 
of  a  feather  from  a  large  bird  like  a  goose  so  the  water  would  not  touch  the  lips.  They  would 
not  eat  the  meat  of  the  legs  of  any  animal  or  the  marrow  from  the  bone  of  the  leg.  They 
would  not  eat  eggs  of  any  bird.  Then  when  they  went  hunting  and  saw  a  moose  or  buffalo 
they  could  get  up  close  and  shoot  him  with  a  bow  and  arrows.  Not  everybody  did  that,  but 
only  those  who  were  likely  to  be  good  runners  or  hunters.  The  drinking  through  a  quill  was 
only  when  on  a  hunt.” 

3  Page  236. 

4  Page  248 

6  Page  227,  footnote  2. 

s  Page  278. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


227 


probably  derived  from  a  relative  of  the  narrator.  The  appended  comment 
shows  the  attitude  of  the  Beaver  toward  such  supernatural  help. 

“  That  was  the  way  they  used  to  live.  The  animals  used  to  be  as  wild  as  they 
are  now.  With  nothing  but  bow  and  arrow  they  could  not  live.  But  in  each  band 
there  were  one  or  two  men  like  this  with  medicine  who  could  kill  them.  The  people 
came  to  them  fvhen  they  got  hungry.” 

When  asked  what  a  man  had  to  do  to  get  it,  he  said:  “They  do  not  do  anything. 
If  there  was  anything  they  could  do,  they  would  all  have  it.  It  comes  suddenly  on  a 
man.  Suppose  some  animal  takes  pity  on  him  or  likes  him  and  gives  him  power. 
I  do  not  know  what  used  to  give  men  that,  whether  it  was  God  or  the  animals  them¬ 
selves.”  1 

Even  in  regard  to  these  ordinary  and  personal  helpers  it  appears  that 
there  is  an  element  of  caprice.  It  is  not  everyone  who  can  come  into 
the  possession  of  such  power,  those  who  were  more  especially  favored 
became  a  class  whose  power  was  a  community  asset.  The  work  of  shamans 
in  warfare  is  mentioned  several  times.  In  the  first  place  they  were  expected 
to  foresee  the  location  of  the  enemy  and  in  some  cases  the  outcome  of  the 
engagement.  When  the  war  party  arrives  the  shaman  is  expected  by  songs 
to  put  the  enemy  to  sleep.2  Similar  shamans  dealt  with  sickness  by  blowing, 
sucking,  and  singing. 

The  following  comments  and  illustrations  of  the  work  of  shamans  was 
given  by  James  Heber,  a  Beaver  who  is  married  to  a  Cree :  — 

The  Cree  doctor  themselves  with  roots  they  get  out  of  the  ground.  The  Beaver 
do  not  know  that.  Beaver  used  to  have  their  own  doctors  but  have  quit.  The 
Slavey  still  do  it.  An  old  man  sang,  drummed,  and  danced  to  see  through  the  winter. 
His  wife  said  the  next  day  the  old  man  looked  through  the  winter.  He  says  we  shall 
lose  a  child.  They  did.  A  Slavey  woman  died,  was  not  breathing  anyway.  Her 
son  came  and  put  his  lips  to  her  neck,  blew  and  sucked  hard.  The  woman’s  abdomen 
went  up  high  several  times  and  she  got  her  breath.  The  informant's  father,  an  old 
man,  got  last  fall  so  he  did  not  pass  his  urine  for  two  or  three  days.  They  gave  him 
up.  A  Slavey  came  to  visit  his  relatives.  They  asked  him  to  go  over  to  him.  He 
held  up  a  cup  of  water  and  talked.  I  do  not  know  what  he  said.  The  man  drank  it 
and  immediately  went  out  and  passed  his  water  all  right.  The  doctor  says  I  see  you 
through  the  white  strip  as  far  as  the  black  strip.  When  you  get  there  keep  the  cup 
for  your  own  use,  do  not  let  anyone  drink  out  of  it. 


1  This  comment  was  made  by  the  Chief  at  Vermilion  in  connection  with  the  story  given 
on  page  262  below. 

2  For  illustrations  see  pp.  286,  287,  2S8  below. 

A  ver>  old  man,  Bourassa  once  saw,  used  to  be  leader  for  war.  He  had  a  cap  with  eagle 
feathers  on  it  and  pelican’s  skin  under  his  throat.  They  were  the  animals  that  helped  him. 
He  did  not  kill  people  himself  for  that  would  spoil  his  medicine.  He  would  come  close  to  the 
camp  and  sing.  That  would  blind  the  enemy.  This  old  man  was  alive  when  the  white 
people  first  built  the  fort. 

He  said  an  old  blind  war  leader  thought  he  became  blind  because  he  killed  two  men  who 
were  getting  away. 


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He  explained  without  questioning  that  the  white  strip  meant  winter 
and  the  black  strip  summer.  The  old  man  is  still  living. 

The  competitions  between  shamans  and  the  performing  of  spectacles 
seem  also  to  have  been  a  feature.  The  development  of  prophecy  in  the 
north  is  unusual  for  America.  Beside  the  accounts  from  Indians,  the  half- 
breeds,  and  even  the  white  traders  have  stories  of  the  foretelling  of  events 
or  the  description  of  contemporaneous  events  at  a  considerable  distance. 

It  appears  that  in  addition  to  the  fortunate  individual  who  had  personal 
supernatural  aids  and  the  shamans  possessing  unusual  power  there  is 
generally  in  each  band  one  man  of  predominating  power  who  directs  the 
religious  activities  of  the  tribe.  These  are  generally  called  prophets.  The 
office  at  Vermilion  was  vacant  but  had  not  long  been  so.  Among  the  Slavey 
at  Hay  River  there  was  an  active  prophet,  and  also  one  at  Dunvegan.  Such 
men  seem  to  have  considerable  liberty  in  initiating  new  movements  in 
religion.  In  theory  they  may  follow  completely  the  revelations  made  to 
them  as  individuals;  but  in  practice,  there  is  reason  to  believe  they  followed 
tradition  rather  closely. 

The  objective  side  of  religion  appears  in  the  use  of  fetishes  such  as  the 
image  of  the  moose  worn  by  the  hunter,  and  the  skins  of  the  animals  con¬ 
cerned.  The  shamans  made  use  of  the  jugglers’  lodge  described  below. 
These  were  in  use  in  Hearne’s  day  east  of  the  Mackenzie.  Dedicated  poles 
with  offerings  attached  were  probably  commonly  used.  Several  were 
seen  among  the  Slavey  and  the  making  of  one  and  the  result  obtained  is 
given  in  a  narrative  below.1  Several  poles,  in  the  form  of  crosses  and 
upright  shafts  were  seen  among  the  Fort  St.  John  Beaver  (Fig.  19), 
but  no  proper  opportunity  of  finding  out  about  them  presented  itself. 
Their  purpose  was  commented  on  by  a  Vermilion  informant.2 

The  one  community  ceremony  of  striking  interest  is  the  semi-annual 
gathering  when  offerings  of  food  are  placed  in  the  fire.  These  ceremonies 
seem  sometimes  at  least  to  have  been  under  the  control  of  the  prophet.  A 
large  dance  ground  is  fenced  and  a  central  fire  prepared.  The  officiating 
individual  puts  in  the  fire  pieces  of  the  flesh  of  the  game  animals  and  prays 
that  the  tribe  may  be  fed  with  similar  food  in  the  future.  They  also  asked 
for  snow  and  rain  since  animals  are  more  easily  taken  when  they  can  be 
tracked.  This  religious  observance  is  followed  by  dancing  throughout  the 


1  Page  260. 

2  When  asked  about  the  medicine  pole  Ike  said,  “It  is  called  enatcuggedi  (leave  some¬ 
thing  ready  for  somebody  coming  along  there)  as  if  one  had  agreed  to  leave  something  for 
somebody  and  then  puts  it  up  until  the  person  came  along.  The  medicine  pole  is  left  for  the 
one  who  helps  him  in  dreams. 

When  asked  if  the  Beaver  still  made  medicine  poles  he  said,  they  never  made  them  so  far 
as  he  has  heard.  The  Cree  and  Slavey  do  that. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


229 


Fig.  19.  Medicine  Poles  near  Fort  St.  John. 


230 


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night  by  the  men  and  women  who  circle  the  fire  clockwise.  The  actual 
information  as  obtained  may  be  of  interest. 

James  Heber  said  in  reply  to  a  question: 

“The  Beaver  do  not  have  the  sun  dance.”  He  did  not  know  what  it  was.  “They 
have  a  tea  dance.  They  have  had  it  eight  or  ten  years.  A  man  here  dreamed  about 
it,  a  prophet.  He  saw  people  in  his  vision  who  sang  for  him  and  he  taught  songs  to 
his  people. 

“People  say  if  he  says  'A  male  or  female  moose  is  given  you,  you  better  go  and 
kill  it,’  then  they  go  and  kill  it.  He  does  not  know  if  it  is  true  or  not.  The  Cree 
do  not  have  it.  They  begin  seriously  with  prayer  and  give  thanks;  at  the  end  it  is 
play’.  The  women  and  men  dance  around  the  fire  to  the  beating  of  a  drum.  They 
eat  first.” 

From  an  elderly  Beaver,  named  Ike,  the  following  was  secured: — 

“He  used  to  have  an  uncle;  we  used  to  get  everything  he  asked  for.  In  the  fall 
when  they’  made  medicine  he  used  to  ask  for  snow  and  yrou  [white]  people  had  good 
crops  and  we  made  fur.  He  used  to  ask  for  a  lot  of  muskrats  etc.,  and  we  alwayrs 
got  them.  We  had  good  luck,  and  y’ou  had  luck  with  your  crops.  Now  he  is  dead 
we  have  bad  luck. 

“They  make  a  circular  enclosure  of  willows  about  four  feet  high  fifteen  or  twenty 
feet  across.  The  one  road  [into  it]  is  called  kuethnne;  it  does  not  matter  which  way 
it  points.  They’  have  it  in  spring  when  the  leaves  begin  to  get  big,  and  in  the  fall. 
In  the  spring  they’  ask  for  food  to  last  through  the  summer,  and  again  in  the  fall, 
before  it  gets  cold,  they  ask  for  food  during  the  winter.” 

Q.  Who  is  the  boss  for  it?  Ans.  There  is  none;  they’  have  all  died  off. 

Q.  How  did  his  uncle  come  to  be  boss?  Ans.  He  knew  things  ahead.  He 
made  a  dance  and  then  we  found  out  he  knew  things  ahead.  He  never  heard  of 
any’one  but  his  uncle  making  it. 

Q.  How  many  days  doing  it?  Ans.  One  night.  He  had  a  good  many  songs. 
He  heard  someone  sing  up  in  the  air.  He  goes  by’  that.  Those  were  the  songs  he 
sang. 

Q.  To  whom  are  the  things  placed  in  the  fire  given?  Ans.  We  are  just  fol¬ 
lowing  an  old  fashion.  It  is  the  onlyr  way  to  give  food  to  the  folks  who  have  died  and 
gone  to  heaven  (he  pointed  up  and  said  y’a')  and  ask  them  to  give  us  more  of  what  we 
have  put  in  the  fire. 

He  say’s  he  has  heard  they’  used  to  talk  to  the  sun  and  to  a  moose  as  if  they  were 
persons. 

The  Chipewyan  of  Cold  Lake  spoke  of  a  similar  ceremony  held  each 
spring  which  they  referred  to  as  “feeding  the  fire.”1  This  seems  to  have 
been  the  one  important  ceremony  of  the  north. 

The  total  impression  of  the  culture  of  the  Beaver  is  that  of  efficient  sim¬ 
plicity.  The  arts  are  the  necessary  ones  involved  in  providing  food,  cloth¬ 
ing,  anfl  shelter.  The  social  organization  is  the  simple  one  of  a  flexible 


i  Page  3.  above. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


231 


family,  and  a  small  hunting  band,  probably  chiefly  consisting  of  relatives, 
led  by  a  chief.  The  religious  feeling  is  strong  and  mostly  direct,  the  indi¬ 
viduals  receiving  their  power  immediately  from  some  supernatural  being 
unaided  by  tradition  or  extended  ritual.  The  conditions  of  the  north 
perhaps  tend  neither  to  develop  anything  superfluous,  or  to  tolerate  non- 
essentials  even  if  they  were  introduced  from  without. 


232 


Anthropological  Papers  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  X, 


MYTHS  AND  TALES. 

Tumaxale,  A  Culture  Hero.1 

There  were  once  two  brothers  who  were  traveling  together.  When  they 
came  to  a  large  lake  they  decided  to  separate,  one  going  along  the  shore 
in  one  direction  and  one  in  the  other. 

One  of  them,  Tumaxale,  had  not  gone  far  before  he  came  to  a  trail  which 
had  been  used  by  people.  He  followed  this  trail  between  two  mountains 
until  it  came  out  again  on  the  large  lake.  He  passed  along  where  sky  and 
water  were  seen  on  either  side,  and  walked  across  on  an  old  beaver  dam. 
He  saw  a  pretty  girl  sitting  nearby,  whom  he  addressed  as  sister,  asking 
her  why  she  was  there.  The  girl,  as  soon  as  she  saw  someone  approach, 
began  to  cry.  “  Why  do  you  cry,  sister?  ”  the  young  man  asked.  “  A  large 
beaver2  lives  here  that  can  only  be  pacified  by  giving  him  a  human  being. 
I  have  been  given  to  him,”  she  replied.  “  He  said  he  would  come  to  get  me 
this  evening  when  the  sun  is  half  way  down  that  big  mountain.”  Saying 
that  he  would  watch  f<jr  the  beaver,  he  left  the  girl  on  the  top  of  the  moun¬ 
tain  where  he  told  her  to  wait  for  him.  The  girl  told  him  that  the  beaver 
came  out  just  at  the  edge  of  the  water  where  the  beaver  dam  made  a  bend. 
The  young  man  sat  there  watching  for  the  beaver  and  keeping  track  of  the 
sun,  and*  said  to  himself,  “  My  sister  said  he  will  come  out  when  the  sun 
reaches  that  point.” 

The  water  began  to  move.  Although  the  lake  was  a  large  one  it  was  all 
set  in  motion.  The  beaver  himself  looking  like  a  mountain  came  out  at  the 
turn  of  the  dam.  When  the  young  man  saw  the  beaver  he  said  to  himself 
that  he  was  too  big;  but  he  also  remembered  how  bad  he  was,  and  shot  him, 
the  arrow  striking  just  behind  the  ear.  He  then  ran  away,  Oh  how  he  ran. 
He  came  up  where  the  girl  was  sitting  and  the  rising  water  came  right  up 
toward  them.  The  water  receded,  and  they  followed  it  back  until  they  came 
to  the  beaver  dam.  Because  the  beaver  was  so  large  he  cut  it  up  in  little 
pieces  and  threw  them  all  over  the  country.  “You  will  be  only  so  large,” 
he  said.  The  pieces  were  as  large  as  a  man’s  little  finger  and  there  became 
as  many  beaver  as  there  were  pieces  which  were  scattered  over  the  world.3 


1  Under  identical  titles  these  narratives  will  be  found  in  Part  V  of  this  volume  as  texts 
except  as  noted  in  the  case  of  a  few,  recorded  in  English. 

2  Lowie,  (a),  189,  and  p.  257  below. 

3  Petitot,  113. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


233 


They  two  started  after  the  people  who  were  living  on  ahead.  “  I  will  sit 
here  and  wait  for  you,  sister,”  he  said.  “  Go  to  your  relatives.”  As  soon 
as  they  saw  her  coming  they  all  started  to  cry,  thinking  they  would  not  live. 
“My  brother  killed  it,”  she  told  them.  “Where  is  your  brother?”  they 
asked.  “  He  is  sitting  right  there,”  she  said.  “  And  what  is  your  brother’s 
name?  ”  they  asked  her.  “  His  name  is  Tumaxale  (he  goes  along  the  shore),” 
she  told  them.  They  were  all  glad  he  had  done  that,  and  did  not  want  to 
let  him  go  away.  Each  one  of  them  asked  him  to  be  a  son-in-law.  He 
stayed  there  a  short  time,  but  concluded  he  would  not  remain  in  one  place. 
He  told  them  he  was  going  out.  They  warned  him  there  were  bad  people 
there.  He  went  up  to  them  and  clubbed  them  all  to  death,  leaving  not  one 
of  them  alive. 

He  walked  along  the  road  until  he  came  to  a  large  place  where  he  slept. 
There  was  a  narrow  place  between  two  hills  where  it  was  the  custom  to  set 
snares.  He  set  a  snare  there  and  went  to  bed.  It  was  very  dark  and 
daylight  did  not  return.  He  kept  climbing  up  the  hill  to  look  for  the  dawn, 
but  there  was  not  a  sign  of  it.  The  darkness  had  lasted  so  long  his  wood 
was  all  gone.  Although  it  was  still  night  he  went  back  where  he  had  set  the 
snare.  He  found  it  was  the  sun  that  had  been  caught,  but  it  was  so  hot  he 
could  not  go  near  it.  “  Let  all  the  animals  come  here  quickly,”  he  said  to 
himself.  They  all  came  running  there,  but  coidd  do  nothing.  The  very 
last,  a  mouse,  came  running  back  all  burned.  He  had  gnawed  the  rope  off. 
The  young  man  ran  back  along  his  own  road  to  the  place  where  the  sun  had 
been  caught  and  took  his  snare  again.1 

He  went  on  the  way  he  had  been  going.  Winter  came  on  him  again. 
As  he  was  walking  along,  he  came  to  a  place  where  someone  had  drawn  a 
sleigh  along.  Tumaxale  had  slept  there  and  hung  up  a  lynx.  Some  one 
had  eaten  some  of  the  lynx  in  his  absence.  He  started  to  follow  him. 
He  saw  he  had  gone  along  there  that  day.  He  was  again  carrying  a  big 
lynx.  When  they  saw  him  coming  they  prepared  a  tipi  for  him.  He 
asked  them  to  roast  the  lynx  he  was  carrying.  “  My  grandchild,  did  you 
ever  eat  this?”  someone  asked.  “I  only  make  use  of  its  fat,”  he  replied. 
She  gave  it  to  him.  “I  live  on  this  kind  only,”  he  said.  He  drank  only 
the  soup  of  it. 

Then  they  lay  down  for  the  night.  That  one  was  not  a  proper  man. 
He  looked  carefully  at  the  man’s  feet  as  he  lay  there.  His  moccasins  were 
hanging  up  at  his  feet.  He  put  the  other  man’s  moccasins  in  the  place  of 
his  own.  Then  the  man  with  whom  he  was  staying  thought  he  would  take 
down  his  guest’s  moccasins,  but  he  really  took  down  all  his  own,  put 


i  Petitot,  411;  Lowie,  (a),  1S4. 


234  Anthropological  Papers  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Yol.  X, 

them  in  the  fire  and  lay  down  again.  In  the  morning  he  got  up  before  the 
other  man  and  quickly  took  down  his  own  moccasins.  “  Here,  grandchild, 
those  are  my  moccasins,”  the  guest  called  to  him.  He  passed  them  to  him 
and  began  to  cry.  He  sat  there  without  any  moccasins.  Tumaxale  only 
had  two  pair  of  moccasins  but  they  did  not  wear  out.  He  went  entirely 
around  the  edge  of  the  sky  without  wearing  them  out.  He  gave  him  one  of 
the  two  pair  of  his  own  moccasins.1  He  was  pleased,  and  gave  him  one  of  his 
own  arrows.  He  too  was  pleased.  “When  you  are  about  to  lie  down 
tonight  we  will  shoot  at  the  end  of  a  stump,”  he  said. 

Then  he  went  on  the  way  he  had  been  going.  He  dropped  the  lynx 
which  he  had  been  carrying  for  food.  Suddenly  he  came  to  a  trail  that  had 
been  used  by  people.  There  he  shot  at  a  stump.  The  arrows  were  pointing 
up.  “Do  not  get  it,”  he  was  told.  He  thought  it  was  quite  close  and 
stepped  up  toward  it.  The  arrow  went  further  and  further  up  until  he 
followed  it  clear  to  the  sky.  Then  he  went  on  after  it  until  he  came  where 
some  people  were  Jiving.  The  people  to  whom  he  came  lived  on  nothing 
but  caribou.  He  thought  it  was  on  this  world.2 

After  he  had  remained  there  a  short  time  he  thought  he  would  go  to  his 
own  country.  Then  the  old  woman  made  a  line  of  caribou  skin  for  him. 
She  made  a  large  amount  of  the  line  and  then  she  made  a  hole  for  him  through 
the  ground.  She  put  him  in  a  skin  and  gave  him  a  knife.  “  When  you 
think  you  are  on  the  earth  cut  through  the  skin,”  she  told  him.  Finally, 
he  thought  he  must  be  on  the  earth.  He  tried  to  swing  himself  but  he  did 
not  move.  He  cut  through  the  skin  to  find  himself  on  a  big  bird’s  nest. 
He  said,  “  Grandmother  your  line,”  as  he  had  been  told  to  do;  and  she  drew 
the  line  up. 

Then  he  started  to  go  far  away.  He  was  on  a  large  bird’s  nest.  Three 
young  birds  were  sitting  in  it.  He  came  up  to  them  and  began  to  ask 
questions.  The  two  larger  ones  said  they  did  not  like  this  man  who  had 
been  given  them.  For  that  reason  he  knocked  them  down  with  a  club. 
One  of  them  told  him  what  he  asked.  “You  are  not  going  to  live,”  he 
warned  the  man.  “  When  does  your  father  come  back?”  he  asked  the  bird. 
“There  is  hail  and  a  big  wind  when  he  comes  back,”  the  young  bird  said. 
“  And  your  mother,  when  does  she  get  back?  ”  he  asked  again.  “  She  comes 
when  there  is  rain  and  a  big  wind,”  was  the  reply. 

The  man  made  ready  for  them.  There  was  hail  and  the  father  returned. 
“I  smell  an  animal  here,”  he  said.  “Well,  what  have  you  been  leaving 
here?”  the  young  one  replied.  “  I  certainly  smell  something  alive,”  he  said 


1  Matthews,  189-190. 

-  Petitot,  354-5,  Lowie,  (a),  190,  Goddard,  (b),  46. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


235 


and  went  around  the  edge  of  his  nest  looking  for  it.  He  knocked  him  down 
with  a  club.1 

Again,  the  mother  was  coming  back.  Again,  “  I  smell  something  alive,” 
she  said.  Again,  she  started  around  the  edge  of  the  nest.  Again,  he 
knocked  her  down.  He  took  the  small  one  and  it  went  about  with  him. 
“You  will  be  just  this  small,”  he  told  it.  He  traveled  around  with  it  until 
it  was  just  large  enough  to  fly.  They  came  to  a  river  and  the  man  put  the 
bird  on  the  bank.  “  Do  you  see  a  fish  swimming  about  at  the  bottom  of  the 
river?”  he  asked  the  bird.  “Yes,”  he  replied.  “Well,  jump  on  it,”  he 
told  the  bird.  He  jumped  on  the  fish,  caught  it,  and  took  it  out  of  the  water. 
“Why  don’t  you  eat  it?”  he  asked  the  bird.  “ Is  it  good?”  he  asked  again. 
“Yes,”  was  the  reply.  “As  long  as  the  world  exists  you  shall  eat  them. 
You  shall  live  on  them,”  the  man  said. 

Again  he  started  on  the  way  he  was  going.  Suddenly,  he  came  where 
there  was  a  road  used  by  people.  He  traveled  along  on  this  road,  camping 
on  it  until  he  came  where  an  old  woman  was  living.  When  he  came  to  her 
she  said,  “Grandchild,  how  have  you  been  traveling?  Grandchild,  these 
people  are  bad.  You  will  not  live.  My  three  daughters  have  all  kinds  of 
bad  things  living  in  their  bodies  with  which  they  kill  people.”  He  killed 
all  the  things  that  lived  in  them.  That  is  why  the  old  man  was  very  angry.2 

Then  the  young  man  said,  “I  will  make  arrows.”  “Well,  let  him  go  for 
them,”  the  old  man  said.  “Grandmother,  what  does  he  mean?”  he  asked. 
“  Grandchild,  he  means  a  bad  place.  It  is  there  he  is  in  the  habit  of  going,” 
she  replied.  “What  kind  of  a  place  is  it?”  he  asked.  “At  a  place  where 
saskatoons  grow  there  are  large  'snakes.  It  is  there  he  goes.  That  is  the 
place  he  means,”  she  said.  Then  he  went  there.  He  made  himself  stone 
leggings  and  went  among  the  saskatoons  with  them.  The  snakes  all  rushed 
at  him  and  caught  him  by  the  legs.  He  clubbed  the  snakes,  took  the  arrow- 
shafts,  and  went  back. 

“  Get  the  polishing  stone  from  your  father  for  me,”  he  said.  “  Let  him 
get  the  polishing  stones  where  I  usually  get  them,”  the  old  man  said.  He 
went  to  his  grandmother  to  ask  about  it.  “  Grandchild,  it  is  a  difficult  place. 
There  is  an  elk  there  who  is  a  person.  He  walks  back  and  forth  on  the  top 
of  a  cutbank.  He  has  something  that  chases  people  and  barks  after  them 
like  a  dog.  You  can’t  get  up  to  him  without  his  knowing  it,”  she  told  him. 
He  got  up  to  him  and  was  ready  for  him.  “I  saw  you  first,”  he  said. 
“You  go  down  the  bank  first.”  The  man  refused,  but  nevertheless  was 
forced  to  run  down  the  bank  and  he  kicked  at  him.  “Why  didn’t  you  run 


1  Matthews,  119-121;  Goddard,  (b),  4S;  Kroeber,  SS. 

2  Petitot,  356;  Goddard,  (b),  47. 


236 


Anthropological  Papers  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  Xr 


straight  along  the  road?”  he  asked.  They  ran  along  again  and  he  kicked 
at  him  but  did  not  hit  him.  He  threw  him  down  and  he  fell  down  the  bank. 
The  elk’s  wife  down  below  killed  him.  She  thought  it  was  a  stranger  she 
was  killing  but  it  was  her  own  husband.  The  woman  came  up  to  him  from 
below,  and  began  running  about.  He  knocked  her  down  and  killed  her  with 
diis  club.  He  took  the  polishing  stone  and  went  home  with  it.1 

The  young  man  put  his  arrows  in  the  fire,  “  I  will  put  feathers  on  them,” 
he  said  to  himself.  “Go  to  your  father  and  get  feathers  for  me,”  he  said. 
■“Let  him  get  feathers  where  I  always  get  them,”  the  old  man  replied. 
Again  he  went  to  his  grandmother,  “Grandchild,  he  means  a  hard  place. 
Big  eagles  live  there,”  she  told  him.  That  they  might  not  get  his  scent 
he  approached  them  from  the  windward.  He  killed  all  the  birds  with  his 
club,  took  the  feathers,  and  went  home  with  them. 

Again  he  said,  “Get  sinew  for  me  from  your  father.”  “Let  him  get  it 
where  I  always  get  it,”  said  the  old  man.  Again,  he  went  to  his  grandmother, 
“Grandmother,  where  does  he  mean?”  he  asked.  “Grandchild,  it  is  a 
difficult  place.  There  is  a  big  buffalo  living  on  a  large  prairie.  One  cannot 
get  to  him  without  his  knowledge.  Snipes  which  make  a  noise  when  he 
does  not  see  a  person  sit  on  the  ends  of  his  horns.  As  soon  as  he  came  where 
the  buffalo  lay  the  birds  saw  him  and  flew  up.  He  made  them  go  down 
again.  They  flew  up  again  without  cause.  “Why  do  you  mislead  me?” 
he  asked.  “We  were  deceived  by  the  leaves,”  they  replied.  He  lay  down 
again.  The  man  transformed  himself  into  a  rodent  and  made  himself  a 
road  to  the  buffalo.  He  made  roads  in  many  directions.  Then  he  gnawed 
the  hair  off  well  belowr  the  animal’s  shoulder  and  stabbed  him  there.  He  ran 
away  along  his  own  road.  He  killed  him,  took  sinew  for  himself,  and  went 
home  with  it.2 

“Go  to  your  father  and  get  pitch  for  me,”  he  said.  “Let  him  get  pitch 
where  I  always  get  it,”  the  old  man  replied.  Then  he  went  to  his  grand¬ 
mother.  “Grandmother,  what  does  he  mean?”  “Grandchild,  there  are 
trees  which  are  like  animals.  These  large  trees  are  growing  together  and  it 
is  only  in  between  them  that  pitch  is  to  be  had.  That  is  what  he  means.” 
Then  he  made  mittens  of  stone  for  himself  and  put  them  on.  When  he 
came  there  he  threw  in  a  stick.  The  trees  struck  against  each  other.  He 
pulled  his  hand  out  leaving  only  his  mitten.  After  that  he  took  the  pitch 
he  wanted. 

Now  he  had  killed  all  the  things  the  old  man  used  to  dream  about. 
This  caused  him  to  be  very  angry.3 


1  Matthews,  122;  Goddard,  (a),  203. 

2  Matthews,  117;  Goddard,  (a),  197. 

2  Dr.  Lowie  has  a  discussion  of  the  distribution  of  tales  of  this  sort,  Lowie,  (b),  97-148. 
The  various  steps  in  arrow-making  enter  into  a  Gros  Vfentre  myth,  Kroeber,  88-90. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


237 


Then  he  told  his  three  daughters  that  they  should  go  for  berries  and 
they  went  off  for  them.  “My  son-in-law,  some  grizzly  bears  used  to  live 
over  there.  Let  us  go  after  them,”  the  old  man  said.  They  two  started 
to  go  there  and  went  on  until  they  came  to  a  large  prairie  on  a  point  of  land. 
“This  is  where  they  used  to  be,”  he  said.  They  went  down  to  the  river. 
There  were  three  bears  standing  together  on  the  prairie.  “  You  watch  for 
them  here,”  the  old  man  said.  The  young  man  lay  in  wait  for  them  while 
the  old  man  scared  them  down  there.  The  three  bears  ran  toward  him  and 
as  they  came  up  he  put  an  arrow  into  each  one  as  it  passed.  Then  he 
called  for  his  wife,  and  told  her  that  the  young  man  had  killed  all  their 
children.1 

Tumaxale  then  chased  him  entirely  around  the  world.  As  he  was  about 
to  kill  the  old  man,  he  jumped  into  the  water.  He  called  for  a  pelican  and 
one  lighted  there  and  drank  up  all  the  water.  They  looked  for  him  every¬ 
where  on  the  lake  bottom  and  could  not  find  him.  He  called  for  small 
diving  birds.  When  they  came  he  instructed  them  to  go  to  the  pelican. 
When  they  lighted  by  him  he  said,  “  You  seem  to  like  my  belly.  I  myself 
was  looking  for  the  skull  of  the  black  water  beetles.”  They  all  stabbed  the 
pelican  right  in  his  mouth  and  flew  away.  The  mean  old  man  was  com¬ 
pletely  drowned. 

After  that  he  started  on  in  the  direction  he  had  been  going.  Not  far 
from  there  he  met  an  old  man  whose  head  was  gray.  He  was  a  pitiful 
looking  man.  “  Who  is  he?  ”  he  said  to  himself.  It  was  his  younger  brother. 
They  were  boys  when  they  separated.  When  they  saw  each  other,  the  other 
one  also  said  to  himself,  “Who  is  that?”  They  began  to  tell  each  other 
what  they  had  been  doing,  and  then  they  realized  they  were  brothers. 


Agait’osdunne,  The  Hair  Scrapings  Man.2  —  First  Version. 

One  time  when  many  people  were  camping  about  they  heard  a  child 
cry  where  they  had  been  dressing  hides.  All  the  women  ran  to  the  place. 
When  they  did  not  find  the  child  they  took  up  the  hairs  of  the  scrapings 
one  at  a  time  and  put  them  to  one  side.  There  was  nothing  there.  Then 
an  old  woman  went  there  and  found  a  child  crawling  among  the  scrap¬ 
ings.  She  took  the  child  up  and  put  it  in  her  mitten. 

She  took  care  of  it  after  that  and  it  became  large  very  quickly  and  was 
vsoon  walking  about.  He  became  a  person  from  the  buffalo.  “  Grandmother 


1  Matthews,  186. 

2  The  distribution  of  this  story  in  the  North  is  given  above,  p.  50. 


238 


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bring  me  only  grass,”  he  said  to  her.  She  brought  him  grass  for  a  bed. 
During  the  night  it  all  disappeared.  “He  is  always  doing  such  things,” 
she  said  to  herself.  When  she  lay  down  again  she  watched  him  through  a 
hole  in  her  blanket.  She  saw  him  get  up  and  shake  himself  and  immedi¬ 
ately  become  a  buffalo.  “Why  did  I  do  this?”  she  said  to  herself  and  lay 
down  again  under  her  blanket.  “So  this  is  what  you  are  doing,”  she 
thought.  After  that  she  took  good  care  of  him. 

Once  the  Indians  were  all  chiseling  out  beaver.  “  I  will  watch  them,” 
the  boy  thought  and  went  where  they  were  eating  the  beaver  meat.  When 
he  saw  the  meat,  he  reached  to  take  some  a  man  was  offering  him.  The 
man  pulled  it  back  again,  fooling  the  boy.  He  was  very  angry.  One  old 
man  gave  him  something  to  eat.  After  the  Indians  had  gone  he  picked  up  a 
beaver  leg  and  swallowed  it,  saying,  “  You  will  not  kill  beaver  until  I  pass 
this  bone.” 

After  that  his  grandmother  traveled  alone  with  the  children  behind  the 
main  band  who  were  starving.  Her  nephews  were  starving;  they  were 
having  a  hard  time.  “  Grandmother,  I  will  fish  with  a  hook  and  line.  There 
are  fish  here  in  this  old  beaver  pond,”  he  said.  She  cut  a  hole  in  the  ice  for 
him.  “  I  will  fish  here,”  he  said.  She  went  over  where  he  was  fishing.  He 
took  out  a  large  beaver.  He  pushed  a  stick  into  the  water  and  caught  four 
beaver  which  he  killed  with  a  club.  “Grandmother,  there  are  four  fish 
down  there  which  I  have  killed,”  he  said  to  her.  His  grandmother  went 
there  and  found  he  had  killed  four  large  beaver.  She  carried  them  back 
and  put  them  by  the  fireplace.  They  ate  beaver  meat.  “Grandmother, 
give  me  the  mesentric  membrane,”  he  said.  She  did  as  he  requested. 

Then  his  grandmother  took  him  on  her  back  and  carried  him  after  the 
other  Indians.  When  the  advance  party  saw  the  mesentric  membrane  he 
had  in  his  hand  they  acted  like  crazy  people  about  it.  They  threw  down  the 
children  they  were  carrying  to  run  after  him.  They  got  hold  of  the  mem¬ 
brane  and  pulled  it  from  side  to  side.  This  made  him  angry. 

His  uncle  had  set  snares  for  beaver.  He  was  sitting  there  by  them  and 
started  to  cry.  “What  is  the  matter?”  he  asked.  “Kill  it  for  me,”  he 
said.  Then  he  passed  the  leg  bone  of  a  beaver.  Then  all  who  were  there, 
all  his  uncles,  took  out  beaver. 

Then  they  moved  on  ahead.  Again  they  were  starving,  when  someone 
reported  having  seen  buffalo  that  did  not  know  people  were  about.  After 
the  others  had  gone  to  bed  he  took  arrows  from  each  man  and  went  to  the 
buffalo.  When  he  came  near  them  he  transformed  himself  into  a  buffalo 
and  started  to  play  with  them.  He  killed  them  all  and  started  back. 
They  had  a  big  fire  ready  for  him  and  were  sitting  there,  waiting.  His 
grandmother  was  sitting  on  the  pile  of  wood,  crying.  “  Grandmother, 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


239 


why  are  you  crying?  ”  he  asked.  He  took  an  arrow  and  held  it  on  his  bow. 
“One  buffalo  was  caught  in  the  willows.  Who  said  this  about  me?  Who 
said  of  me  that,  ‘he  went  along  the  people’s  trail  carrying  arrows?’”  he 
inquired.  No  one  spoke  and  for  that  reason  he  did  not  shoot.  He  held 
two  arrows  by  their  heads,  broke  them,  and  threw  them  into  the  fire. 
“  What  did  I  do  to  your  animals?  ”  he  asked  them.  They  thought  the  buffalo 
were  all  ahead  of  them. 

They  started  away,  but  one  old  man  sat  there  after  the  others  had  gone. 
Agait’osdunne  had  put  some  buffalo  fat  in  the  fold  of  his  blanket.  He 
pulled  that  out  for  his  grandfather.  “Grandfather,  the  wolves  killed  a 
young  buffalo.  I  thought  I  would  put  its  fat  in  my  pocket.”  He  passed 
it  to  him.  “It  is  not  young  buffalo’s  fat,”  the  old  man  said  to  himself. 
Then  he  told  his  grandfather  that  each  man  who  knew  his  own  arrows 
would  know  which  buffalo  belonged  to  him.  His  grandfather  went  away 
along  the  road  after  the  others.  They  thought  the  buffalo  were  lying  there 
alive  and  they  were  sitting  over  them  ready  to  shoot.  “Why  are  you 
sitting  there?  ”  he  asked.  They  thought  the  buffalo  were  still  alive  and  they 
would  take  them  all  in  snares.  When  he  came  to  them  he  said,  “Take  the 
ones  your  arrows  are  sticking  in.”  He  thought  he  and  his  grandmother 
would  have  an  animal  and  he  had  left  an  old  arrow  lying  on  it.  They 
stepped  over  that  buffalo. 

Agait’osdunne  was  very  poor.  The  large  band  that  camped  ahead  had 
a  certain  man  for  chief.  He  had  a  daughter  no  one  liked.  She  went  out 
one  time  and  looking  at  Agait’osdunne  said,  “  I  do  not  like  your  eyes.”  He 
was  very  angry  because  of  that  and  after  she  had  gone  he  went  there  and 
urinated. 

She  was  very  soon  pregnant  and  gave  birth  to  a  child.  “  Make  a  medi¬ 
cine  lodge,”  the  chief  said.  They  made  a  medicine  lodge.  “The  child 
will  urinate  on  the  man  who  is  its  father,”  the  chief  said.  They  all  came 
there  where  the  medicine  lodge  stood.  He  disappeared  now  and  then  and 
then  he  was  not  about  at  all.1  They  did  not  know  who  could  be  its  father. 
Agait’osdunne  was  the  only  one  who  did  not  go  there.  “Well,  let  every¬ 
one  of  the  men  come  here,”  the  chief  said.  His  grandmother  was  sorry  for 
the  child  and  liked  it  and  for  that  reason  went  there.  As  soon  as  she  took 
it,  the  child  urinated.  All  the  women  then  stripped  the  clothes  from  Agai¬ 
t’osdunne  and  put  out  his  fire,  but  his  grandmother  put  some  fire  in  sinew 
and  put  it  inside  a  pillow.  They  drove  him  away  from  his  grandmother. 
“I  hope  when  they  get  up  they  will  take  out  the  sinew,”  she  said.  The 
next  morning  when  they  arose  there  was  nothing  they  could  do  anything 


1  This  probably  refers  to  the  spirit  supposed  to  assist  in  the  divination. 


240 


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with.  “Look  inside  grandmother’s  pillow,”  he  said.  She  went  there  and 
found  fire  under  the  sinew  where  it  had  been  left  and  built  a  fire  with  it. 

“  I  wish  you  would  make  some  arrows  for  me,”  he  told  the  woman.  She 
made  arrows  for  him  from  some  poor  willows.  “  I  wish  three  wolves  would 
come  along  here  to  us,”  he  said.  Before  long  three  wolves  came  there  and 
he  killed  them  all.  The  women  went  to  them.  They  took  hold  of  the 
wolves  by  their  noses,  rubbed  them,  and  pulled  the  entire  body  out  of  the 
skins.  Then  they  put  on  the  skins  with  the  hair  still  on  them.  “  I  wish 
thirteen  caribou  would  come  along  here,”  he  said.  They  came  very  soon 
and  he  killed  them  all.  They  made  a  tipi  cover  of  their  skins.  He  wished 
again  for  three  moose  and  they  came.  He  killed  them  and  they  had  the 
leather  they  needed. 

He  wished  the  others  might  die  of  starvation.  For  his  grandmother,  how¬ 
ever,  he  used  to  drop  fat  along  behind.  “  Because  they  did  not  care  whether 
he  starved  or  not,  let  them  be  very  hungry  and  die  of  starvation,”  he  was 
thinking  about  them.  “Well,  let  them  come  here,”  he  thought.  They 
came  there.  He  told  them  that  before  he  had  resolved  not  to  get  meat  for 
them.  He  went  away  from  them  but  before  leaving,  he  told  them  that  if 
many  moose  went  by  they  were  not  to  shoot  the  leader  but  only  those 
following  behind.  Then  owl,  who  was  a  person  then,  shot  the  moose  that 
was  in  front.  His  wife  took  a  skin  and  ran  after  him.  She  ran  far  away 
to  him.  “You  are  alive.  You  will  not  die  quickly,”  she  said  to  him. 
“Roll  up  in  the  skin,”  she  told  him.  Then  they  beat  owl  with  a  club  and 
that  is  why  his  head  is  large. 


Agait’osdunne,  The  Hair  Scrapings  Man. —  Second  Version. 

A  child  was  heard  to  cry  from  a  buffalo  skin.  An  old  woman  went 
toward  it  and  found  a  child  sitting  among  the  hairs  which  had  been  scraped 
from  the  buffalo  skins.  She  took  up  the  child  and  because  she  felt  sorry  for 
it,  took  care  of  it  and  raised  it,  although  the  others  tried  to  dissuade  her. 

It  grew  quickly.  “Put  nothing  but  grass  under  me,  grandmother,” 
he  said.  She  put  some  grass  under  him  but  in  the  night  she  saw  it  was 
gone;  there  was  nothing  but  bare  ground  under  him.  “What  are  you 
doing,  grandchild?”  she  said  to  herself.  She  watched  him  through  her 
ragged  blanket  one  night  and  saw  him  stand  up,  a  large  buffalo.  He  ate 
up  the  grass  he  was  lying  on.  “My  grandson  is  a  buffalo,”  she  thought. 

A  famine  was  killing  the  people  when  someone  saw  a  herd  of  buffalo. 
There  were  many  people  camping  there  who  decided  to  go  together  and  kill 
the  buffalo.  The  boy  saw  the  buffalo  and  at  night,  while  the  people  were 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


241 


asleep,  took  an  arrow  from  each  man’s  supply.  He  went  to  the  buffalo 
during  the  night  and  shot  them  all  because  they  were  not  afraid  of  him. 
“The  buffalo  will  belong  to  the  man  whose  arrow  is  on  it,”  he  said  to  him¬ 
self,  and  distributed  the  arrows  on  the  dead  buffalo.  “  We  will  make  meat 
of  this  one  for  my  grandmother,”  he  said,  and  placed  two  of  his  arrows  on 
one  of  the  animals. 

He  went  back  to  the  camp  to  find  someone  had  built  a  big  fire.  His 
grandmother  was  sitting  on  the  wood,  crying.  “What  is  the  matter, 
grandmother?”  he  asked.  “You  went  for  the  people’s  animals  and  they 
say  they  will  burn  you.”  “Who  says  that  about  me?”  he  asked.  “They 
all  say  it  of  you.  They  are  not  pleased.”  “None  of  your  animals  ran 
away.  They  are  still  where  they  were  last  night.  Go  to  them,”  he  said. 

An  old  man  was  sitting  there  after  the  others  had  left.  He  took  a  seat 
by  this  old  man  and  said,  “  I  saw  the  wolves  kill  a  young  buffalo,  grand¬ 
father.”  They  two  followed  along  the  way  the  others  had  gone.  They 
found  some  of  the  Indians  lying  in  front  of  the  dead  buffalo  while  others 
were  trying  to  surround  them.  When  they  came  up  to  the  buffalo  they 
found  they  had  all  been  killed  and  the  arrows  were  lying  on  the  bodies. 
The  people  were  all  very  much  pleased. 


Atceco  Kills  Buffalo. 

One  time  when  a  band  of  Indians  were  without  food,  someone  saw  some 
buffalo.  They  did  not  have  guns  and  since  the  buffalo  were  in  an  open 
place  without  cover  they  did  not  know  how  they  could  get  them.  They 
decided  to  wait  until  the  next  day  when  they  could  make  a  fence  and  drive 
them  into  a  corral.  A  boy,  named  Atcecp,  started  after  the  buffalo  by 
himself,  and  the  people  were  all  angry.  “  Let  us  kill  him,”  they  were  saying. 
They  went  after  him.  They  prepared  a  large  fire  for  him  and  sat  down  by 
it  waiting  for  him.  As  he  was  coming  back  he  found  his  grandmother  who 
had  raised  him,  sitting  behind  the  fire  crying.  “Why  are  you  crying, 
grandmother?”  he  asked.  “These  people  say  they  are  going  to  kill  you,” 
she  replied.  “Show  me  which  one  of  them  says  that  of  me,”  he  asked  of 
his  grandmother.  They  were  afraid  of  him. 

Then  they  started  after  the  buffalo  and  found  them  still  where  they 
had  been  seen.  “  Be  careful,  they  might  see  us,”  they  said.  The  boy 
followed  along  after  the  others.  They  also  told  him  to  take  care  the 
buffalo  did  not  see  him.  This  boy  had  killed  all  the  buffalo.  From  a 
man  who  had  many  children  he  had  taken  two  of  his  arrows,  but  if  there 
was  only  one  child  he  took  only  one  arrow.  With  these  arrows  he  had 


242 


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killed  all  the  buffalo,  allotting  them  one  or  two  animals  according  to  the 
number  of  children.  They  were  all  saved  from  starving. 


Atceco  Kills  a  Bad  Man. 

One  time  when  they  were  starving  they  started  to  move  toward  a  lake 
where  they  knew  there  were  fish.  A  bad  old  man  was  known  to  live  there 
but  they  thought  he  was  away  from  home.  When  they  came  to  the  place 
they  found  he  was  still  living  there.  Then  that  small  boy  said  he  would 
visit  his  grandfather,  meaning  the  old  man.  His  friends  advised  him  against 
it,  but  he  replied  that  since  he  was  starving  and  suffering  much  he  would 
visit  him  nevertheless.  The  others  tried  hard  to  stop  him  but  he  set  out 
to  pay  the  visit. 

When  he  arrived  the  old  man  asked  why  he  came.  “I  came  to  you, 
grandfather,  because  I  am  starving,”  the  boy  replied.  “Well,  you  will  not 
live  long,”  the  old  man  said,  “go  back  or  I  will  kill  you.”  “You  do  not 
talk  as  other  people  do,  grandfather,”  the  boy  said.  “Well,  cook  him  some 
fish,”  he  told  his  wife.  The  boy  ate  the  fish  when  it  was  set  before  him. 
“What  kind  of  a  person  are  you  who  eat  the  fish  I  give  you  and  still  live? 
You  are  Atcecp,”  the  old  man  said.  “Why  do  you  say  that?  I  ate  what 
you  gave  me  and  I  am  happy,”  the  boy  replied. 

“Cook  for  him  again,”  he  said,  and  his  wife  did  so.  “No  person  ever 
did  this  way  with  me  before,  but  let  us  use  supernatural  power  on  each 
other,”  the  old  man  said.  “What  am  I  to  do,  that  you  speak  that  way?” 
the  boy  asked.  “You  have  eaten  much  of  my  food,”  the  old  man  replied. 
“You  do  something  to  me  first,  grandfather,”  the  boy  said.  The  old  man 
made  a  large  frog  sit  on  his  palm  and  told  the  boy  to  take  it.  “Now  you 
do  something  to  me,”  the  old  man  said.  “Yes,  grandfather,  but  what  do 
I  know,  that  you  should  say  that  to  me?”  the  boy  asked.  “You  swallowed 
a  small  frog  and  how  is  it  that  it  did  not  bother  you?”  the  old  man  asked. 
“What  sort  of  a  person  am  I  that  you  should  say  that?”  the  boy  asked 
again.  The  old  man  swallowed  it  and  he  could  hardly  breathe. 

When  Atcecp  started  back  the  old  man  said  that  since  he  had  done 
that  to  him,  he  would  know  how  to  cure  him.  He  sent  his  wife  to  bring 
the  boy  back  that  he  might  cure  him.  When  the  boy  saw  the  sorrowful 
looking  old  woman  coming  after  him  he  told  her  that  he  was  not  yet  old 
enough  to  marry  and  that  her  husband  might  keep  her.  He  turned  back 
and  came  to  the  old  man  who  was  still  breathing.  When  the  boy  began  to 
sing  over  him  the  frog  closed  the  old  man’s  mouth  and  he  died. 

The  boy  then  ran  back  to  his  friends  who  asked  how  it  happened  he  was 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


243 


still  alive.  “  My  grandfather  was  very  kind.  He  is  not  a  mean  man.  He 
fed  me  well  and  I  ate  what  he  gave  me,”  the  boy  replied.  They  knew  the 
old  man  was  mean  and  they  were  afraid  of  him. 

AtcecQ  killed  him  and  the  people  were  very  much  pleased.  They  moved 
camp  to  the  place  where  the  fish  were  and  many  people  were  saved  from 
starving. 

The  old  man  had  many  wives  for  he  had  taken  the  wives  of  the  men  he 
had  killed.  They  took  these  women  away.  Many  people  were  glad  be¬ 
cause  of  what  Ateecp  had  done. 


Agait’osdunne  Marries  the  Chief’s  Daughter. 

They  did  not  know  what  kind  of  a  man  Agait’osdunne  was.  He  was  a 
miserable  man  and  miserable  beyond  that;  and  they  had  no  respect  for  him 
since  he  had  never  killed  anything.  There  was  another  man  who  was 
highly  respected,  the  chief.  He  had  a  daughter  of  whom  he  took  great  care 
to  guard  her  from  evil.  All  at  once  it  appeared  from  her  shape  that  she 
was  pregnant.  Her  father  was  determined  to  find  out  by  whom  she  was  in 
that  condition.  He  was  a  man  who  had  very  great  supernatural  power, 
and  had  some  young  thunderbirds  that  he  was  keeping  in  a  cage.  He 
thought  he  would  find  out  what  he  wanted  to  know  through  the  help  of 
these  birds.  He  brought  the  men  all  together  and  asked  each  of  them  who 
did  it.  They  gjl  denied  knowing  who  had  done  it.  Then  he  made  them  go 
in  where  the  birds  were.  If  the  man  who  was  guilty  went  in  the  birds  would 
ruffle  up  their  feathers.  He  was  going  to  find  out  about  it  in  this  way. 
They  went  in  one  by  one  but  the  feathers  of  the  birds  did  not  move. 

“  Are  these  all  the  men?  ”  he  asked.  “  There  is  one  man  who  is  not  here, ” 
they  told  him.  Then  Agait’osdunne  came  in  and  the  feathers  of  the  birds 
stood  out  immediately.  “Her  child  is  from  that  man,”  he  concluded.  He 
sent  his  child  away  in  very  pitiful  condition.  “  Let  them  die,”  he  said.  He 
cast  them  off,  leaving  them  no  clothes  to  wear.  They  were  in  pitiful  condi¬ 
tion  and  there  was  nothing  they  could  do.  Agait’osdunne  was  determined 
they  should  live.  With  his  supernatural  power  he  caused  a  moose  to  come 
there  and  killed  it.  From  its  skin  he  made  two  good  garments.  He  was 
that  kind  of  a  being.  If  he  said  something  should  happen  that  thing  hap¬ 
pened. 

By  means  of  that  power  they  lived  all  winter  without  suffering  hardships. 
Those  from  whom  they  had  moved  were  starving  to  death.  Because  they 
had  cast  him  off  to  die,  he  would  give  them  nothing  but  the  blood,  and  he 
gave  them  much  of  that.  “  Let  them  live  on  the  blood  of  the  animals  that 


244 


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are  killed,”  he  said.  When  he  went  after  animals  he  told  his  wife  that  the 
one  which  came  first  should  be  spared.  There  was  one  mean  man  who  shot 
it  and  killed  all  the  animals  that  they  lived  on.  When  she  saw  her  husband 
was  not  around  she  thought  something  might  have  befallen  him.  She 
took  a  mooseskin  garment  and  went  to  him.  When  she  came  up  to  him 
he  was  still  alive.  She  put  a  skin  over  his  head  and  made  him  well  again. 
Agait’osdunne  was  from  an  animal.  Nothing  was  difficult  for  him. 


The  Orphan  Boy  Kills  Beaver. 

There  was  a  young  girl  and  her  younger  brother  whose  father  and  mother 
had  died.  The  girl  raised  her  brother.  Once  when  the  people  were  dying 
of  starvation  they  came  where  there  was  a  beaver  lake  as  they  were  moving 
about.  The  boy’s  sister  was  carrying  a  load  on  her  back.1  The  boy  asked 
his  sister  to  cut  a  hole  through  the  ice  for  him  so  he  might  fish  there.  He  also 
asked  her  to  make  hint  some  arrows  of  a  willow,  saying  he  would  try  to  get 
some  fish.  She  was  also  to  build  a  fire  on  the  shore.  To  all  this  she  gave 
her  assent.  They  went  to  the  bank  and  sat  by  a  fire  for  a  time.  Then  he 
started  again  to  the  lake  where  he  stuck  his  arrows  into  the  water  and 
speared  many  beaver  which  he  pulled  out  and  killed  with  a  club.  He  went 
back  to  his  sister  and  asked  her  to  bring  the  beaver  for  him.  She  went  for 
them  and  brought  them  to  the  fire  where  she  singed  them.  Then  she 
started  out  after  the  other  people  carrying  the  singed  beaver  and  her  brother. 
The  boy  sat  on  his  sister’s  back  working  at  the  beaver.  As  she  was  carrying 
him  along  there  someone  saw  him.  They  ran  up  to  him.  His  sister  put 
him  down.  The  people  took  all  the  beaver  tails  from  him. 

After  that  they  were  again  dying  of  starvation.  The  boy  was  angry. 
He  ate  the  leg  of  a  beaver  because  he  was  angry.  Starvation  was  killing 
them  and  they  sent  for  him.  He  defecated  and  again  he  killed  many  beaver 
They  lived  all  right  after  that. 


The  Moose  that  Had  Been  a  Man. 

A  large  band  of  Indians  were  moving  about  when  one  old  man  said  that 
he  would  hunt  the  next  morning  along  the  mountains.  There  were  two 
moose  together  who  heard  the  old  man  say  that.  “  That  old  man  has  great 
supernatural  power;  he  is  coming  after  us  and  we  will  not  be  able  to  get 


i  Perhaps  this  sentence  should  mean  she  was  carrying  her  brother  on  her  back. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


245 


away  from  him.  We  will  travel  very  slyly,”  the  moose  said.  They  had 
heard  the  old  man  talking  and  therefore  traveled  about  with  great  caution. 

When  the  old  man  came  along  he  did  not  follow  the  tracks  of  the  moose, 
but  went  around  another  way  and  shot  one  of  them  with  arrows.  He  did 
not  stop  to  cut  up  the  moose  he  had  killed,  but,  saying  to  himself  that  there 
had  been  two  of  them  and  that  one  was  missing,  he  went  after  it.  The 
moose  ran  very  fast  and  lay  down  quietly  at  the  end  of  the  path.  The  old 
man  went  directly  to  the  place  where  the  moose  was  lying,  following  a 
direction  at  right  angles  to  that  taken  by  the  moose.  The  moose  got  up. 
The  old  man  had  feathers  on  his  bow  (arrow)  which  showed  the  way  he 
should  go.  When  these  feathers  moved  the  moose  heard  it.  He  saw  the 
man.  “What  shall  I  do  now,  he  has  me  killed  long  ago?”  the  moose  said 
to  himself.  He  looked  about  to  see  where  the  trees  were  thick  and  ran 
there.  The  man  ran  along  beside  him  so  that  the  moose  could  not  escape. 
Seeing  a  small  open  place,  the  moose  said  to  himself,  “  Let  him  kill  me  there.” 
Seeing  that  there  was  nothing  more  that  he  could  do,  he  ran  to  the  open 
place,  jumped  to  the  spot,  and  fell. 

It  seems  that  the  moose  was  a  person.  This  old  man  had  had  a  younger 
brother  who  had  disappeared  into  a  herd  of  moose.1  That  was  the  moose 
he  was  following.  “I  am  that  one,”  the  moose  said,  “what  do  you  want?” 
“  It  is  better  for  you  to  go  to  some  larger  country,”  said  the  man.  He  did 
not  kill  the  moose  for  he  knew  it  was  his  younger  brother.  Then  he  left 
him  and  became  a  man  again. 


Wonyoni  Avenges  the  Death  of  his  Sons. 

A  man  named  Wonyoni  had  always  camped  by  himself  and  raised  his 
family  apart  from  others.  One  of  his  sons  once  inquired  if  they  were  the 
only  existing  people.  His  father  told  him  that  an  uncle  lived  not  far  away 
by  a  fish  lake,  but  because  this  uncle  was  a  mean  man  he  had  raised  his 
family  by  themselves.  The  boy  replied  that  they  would  visit  the  uncle 
anyway.  “  Well,  my  boy,  you  are  to  be  pitied,  for  you  will  not  live  long 
if  you  do  that,”  the  father  warned  him.  “Never  mind  that,  we  will  visit 
him,”  the  boy  said.  “  I  have  hindered  your  going  many  times,  now  do  as 
you  like,”  the  father  conceded. 

Before  the  three  boys  set  out  to  make  the  visit  the  father  told  the  young¬ 
est  boy  not  to  go  into  the  tipi  even  if  the  two  older  boys  did  so.  He  re¬ 
newed  the  boy’s  shoe  strings  because  the  old  ones  were  dry  and  brittle.  He 


1  Lowie,  (a),  179. 


246 


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also  advised  him  to  leave  his  snowshoes  along  the  trail,  one  pair  behind  the 
other  because  the  track  upon  the  snow  was  not  strong.  The  boy  did  as  his 
father  advised. 

When  they  came  to  the  uncle’s  home  the  two  older  boys  went  in  but  the 
youngest  played  outside,  although  they  called  to  him  to  come  in.  The 
uncle  had  killed  all  who  had  visited  him  previously  and  had  rendered  their 
fat.  He  directed  his  wife  to  cook  for  the  guests.  When  they  had  been  fed 
he  took  two  spears  and  conducted  the  boys  to  the  base  of  the  tipi  where  he 
placed  them.  “  This  is  the  way  your  aunt  and  I  used  to  do  when  we  found 
a  she-bear  and  her  young  ones.  When  we  came  upon  them  we  would  scare 
them  out,  and  one  standing  on  either  side,  we  would  spear  them  as  they 
ran  out.  “This  is  the  lard  we  made  of  them.”  Then  as  an  illustration  of 
the  way  it  was  done  he  drove  the  spears  through  both  boys  at  the  same  time. 
The  remaining  boy  ran  back  down  the  road.  The  uncle  chased  him  but 
because  the  road  was  not  firm  enough  to  hold  the  older  man,  the  boy  out¬ 
ran  him  and  escaped.  When  he  returned,  his  father  inquired  about  his 
brothers.  “My  uncle  killed  them,”  the  boy  replied. 

To  this  Wonyoni  paid  no  attention  but  lay  by  the  fire  as  if  nothing  had 
happened.  His  wife  cried  and  tried  to  throw  herself  into  the  fire.  When 
daylight  was  appearing  the  next  morning,  the  man  went  to  his  son  and  said, 
“  Come,  let  us  go  to  your  uncle.”  They  went  where  he  had  lived  but  found 
the  tipi  had  been  moved  away.  He  had  killed  the  two  boys  without  any 
reason  and  burned  everything  over.  “  My  brother  is  laughing  at  us  ahead 
there.  Your  uncle  never  knows  what  he  ought  to  do,”  the  father  said. 

They  followed  to  the  other  side  of  the  lake  where  the  tipi  had  been 
placed  on  a  large  flat.  Wonyoni  was  angry.  When  they  came  near  they 
saw  the  uncle  walking  outside  watching  for  them.  He  came  up  to  them  and 
met  them.  He  was  a  large  man.  When  he  came  up  close  to  them  Wonyoni 
ran  back  from  him.  “  I  guess  you  ran  off  because  your  feelings  are  hurt,” 
the  large  man  said  to  him.  Then  Wonyoni  ran  up  to  him  again  saying, 
“You  intend  doing  again  as  you  did  to  the  boys.  Well,  you  make  the  first 
move,”  he  said,  showing  his  lack  of  respect.  Wonyoni  then  aimed  a  blow 
at  the  man’s  head,  but  struck  below  and  broke  his  legs.  The  large  man  fell 
and  Wonyoni  came  up  to  him  and  killed  him  with  his  club. 

The  father  and  son  then  went  up  the  bank  where  the  camp  stood.  No 
one  was  stronger  than  that  old  man.  “Where  did  you  put  him?”  the  large 
man’s  wife  asked.  She  had  a  flat  stone  in  her  bag  which  she  took  out  and 
threw  at  the  man.  Stepping  to  one  side  he  dodged  it  and  jumped  on  the 
woman,  knocking  her  down.  Wonyoni  then  killed  all  the  people  at  the 
camp  of  the  uncle  whose  name  had  been  Bear-stands-in-the-water.  Won¬ 
yoni,  having  killed  many  people,  returned  to  his  own  camp.  The  people 
were  all  glad. 


1910.] 


Goddard,  The  Heaver  Indians. 


247 


The  Revenge  of  Wonyoni. 

There  was  an  old  man  who  raised  his  children  by  themselves.  When 
the  boys  were  grown  up  one  of  them  said,  “Father,  do  you  know  of  any 
people  living  close  by?”  The  father  replied,  “No,  my  son,  I  do  not  know 
of  any  people  living  close  by  except  your  uncle  who  lives  near,  but  he  has 
always  been  a  bad  man.”  “We  will  visit  him,”  the  boys  said.  “Do  not 
do  it;  you  will  not  live  if  you  do,”  said  the  father.  “We  will  visit  our 
uncle  any  way;  it  is  hard  for  us  to  live  by  ourselves,”  the  boys  replied. 
“Well,  go  then,”  the  father  said.  Addressing  the  youngest  boy  he  asked 
him  what  supernatural  help  he  had.  “My  dream  was  of  newly  fallen  snow 
that  does  not  pack,”  the  youngest  replied.  When  the  two  older  boys 
started  the  youngest  one  told  his  father  that  he  too  would  go.  “Well,” 
replied  his  father,  “your  uncle  is  bad.  If  your  brothers  go  into  the  house, 
you  stay  outside  and  play.” 

The  boys  started  to  make  the  visit.  The  two  older  ones  came  to  their 
uncle  who  recognized  them.  “They  are  my  nephews.  Quick,  give  them 
something  to  eat,”  he  said.  His  wife  gave  them  some  bear  grease  by  means 
of  which  he  killed  them.1  He  killed  the  two  boys  but  the  youngest  ran 
away.  He  came  where  he  had  left  his  snowshoes,  put  them  on,  and  made 
his  escape. 

When  he  came  to  his  father  he  said,  “ Father,  he  killed  my  two  brothers.” 
The  father  was  little  disturbed  and  slept  as  usual.  The  old  man  was  under¬ 
sized  and  his  name  was  Wonyoni  which  means  “smart.”  “I  will  pay  my 
brother-in-law  a  visit  tomorrow  morning,”  he  said. 

He  went  where  the  camp  had  been  but  found  his  brother-in-law  had 
moved  away.  The  bodies  of  his  sons  were  lying  there.  The  camp  had  been 
moved  across  the  lake.  Wonyoni  started  to  cross  on  the  ice  and  saw  his 
brother-in-law  walking  by  the  lake.  “  Do  not  come  this  way,”  the  brother- 
in-law  called,  “you  are  in  pitiful  condition.”  2 

They  say  he  was  a  large  man.  “  Brother-in-law,  why  do  you  speak  as 
any  other  man  might?  Do  I  visit  you  for  nothing  that  you  say  that.” 
Wonyoni  said.  “Don’t  you  come  here,  nevertheless;  you  are  pitiful,”  he 
replied,  but  the  old  man  paid  no  attention  to  him.  He  walked  on  until  he 
came  near  him.  “  You  are  coming  to  me  because  I  killed  your  children. 
You  begin  the  fight,”  he  said  to  Wonyoni,  who  replied,  “  I  am  in  pitiful 


1  The  other  version  (p.  246),  gives  the  details  of  their  taking  off. 

2  This  remark  probably  refers  to  the  usual  seclusion  of  those  who  have  recently  suffered 
the  loss  of  near  relatives,  which  the  murderer  was  tryiug  to  enforce. 


248 


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condition  as  you  say.  What  am  I  able  to  do  to  you?”  “You  begin  the 
fight  anyway,”  he  said  again.  “Fix  yourself,”  Wonyoni  said. 

The  large  man  had  a  buffalo  rawhide  and  Wonyoni  had  beaver  skins  of 
the  same  sort.  The  latter  had  a  jawbone  for  a  weapon  and  the  former  the 
backbone  of  a  buffalo.1  Wonyoni  made  a  feint  at  the  head  of  the  other  man 
who  thinking  he  was  to  be  hit  in  the  head  raised  his  buffalo  hide.  Wonyoni 
striking  under  this,  broke  his  legs  and  killed  him.  Although  he  was  a  small 
man  he  was  a  formidable  one  they  say. 


Wonyoni  Escapes  from  the  Cree. 

The  old  man,  Wonyoni,  was  hunting  moose  with  a  dog  when  he  became 
aware  of  Cree  in  the  neighborhood.  “What  shall  I  do?”  he  said  to  himself 
and  began  to  study  the  situation.  He  started  off  making  tracks  away  from 
the  place  where  his  camp  was  situated.  He  came  to  an  open  place,  looking 
back  now  and  then.  He  was  looking  for  the  Cree,  when  suddenly  he  saw  a 
man.  He  was  traveling  toward  a  large  river  and  when  he  came  there,  he 
found  a  large  stone  and  carried  it  with  him  up  the  hill  where  he  was  going 
to  lie  down  for  the  night.  He  was  on  the  watch  there  when  suddenly  the 
Cree  were  all  around  him.  “How  shall  I  get  away  from  here?”  he  said  to 
himself.  Still  considering  this  he  went  to  bed.  The  Cree  were  all  around 
him.  When  they  made  a  rush  at  him  to  kill  him  he  kicked  the  large  stone 
he  had  brought  up  the  hill  so  that  it  rolled  down,  breaking  the  trees  as  it 
went.  The  Cree  thinking  it  was  Wonyoni  running  away,  chased  after  it. 
The  old  man  immediately  started  back  to  his  camp.  The  Cree  were  sitting 
there  waiting  for  daylight  so  they  could  catch  him.  They  did  not  kill  him 
and  he  got  back  to  his  camp  without  being  discovered  because  he  was 
smart. 


A  Young  Man  is  Taken  to  Another  World  by  Fledgling  Geese.2 

A  man  was  hunting  in  a  canoe  when  he  saw  some  young  yellow  geese. 
He  paddled  up  to  them  and  caught  them.  He  thought  they  were  too  small 
to  kill.  Tying  them  to  the  canoe,  he  told  them  to  tow  him  to  their  mother’s 
country.  He  lay  down  in  his  canoe  and  fell  asleep.  He  slept  very  soundly 


1  The  buffalo  skins  and  the  beaver  skins  were  to  give  supernatural  help  as  well  as  real 
protection. 

2  Lowie,  (a),  189;  Goddard,  (b),  46.  where  this  incident  precedes  that  of  following  an 
arrow  to  the  sky  as  related  on  p.  234  above. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


249 


and  a  long  time  passed  before  he  woke  up,  and  then  the  geese  were  nearly 
large  enough  to  fly. 

It  was  not  this  earth  on  which  he  stood  when  he  woke  up,  but  he  thought 
he  was  still  in  his  own  country.  It  was  a  large  lake.  He  waded  ashore  and 
walked  along  by  the  lake,  thinking  intently.  Suddenly  in  the  distance  he 
saw  a  wolf  running  along.  The  wolf  was  looking  toward  the  man.  The 
wolf  ran  down  until  he  came  to  the  water  which  he  entered.  As  he  walked 
through  the  water  he  kept  looking  back  toward  the  man  who  began  to  follow 
the  wolf.  They  continued  this  way,  the  wolf  running  ahead  and  the  man 
following  until  after  they  had  gone  a  long  distance  when  land  appeared. 
He  went  ashore  and  walked  along  by  the  water. 

He  came  where  a  man  was  living  who  had  many  children.  This  man 
gave  the  stranger  a  daughter  in  marriage.  The  man  who  lived  there  went 
hunting  by  himself  and  killed  a  moose.  The  other  man  killed  nothing. 
The  first  man  thought  much  about  it.  “  He  is  my  son-in-law  and  a  relative, 
let  him  hunt  with  me  once  anyway.  Let  him  hunt  with  my  snowshoes.” 
He  loaned  him  a  pair  of  his  own  snowshoes  and  he  went  hunting.  He  had 
not  gone  very  far  when  he  killed  a  female  with  young.  When  he  came  back 
to  the  camp  he  saw  many  tracks.  They  thought  they  were  the  tracks  of  a 
good  many  people  but  they  were  really  their  own  tracks.  He  returned  the 
snowshoes  to  his  father-in-law.  “Go  back  to  your  relatives,”  the  old  man 
told  his  son-in-law.  He  went  hunting,  paddling  in  his  canoe.  In  the 
distance  something  was  moving.  When  he  crossed  to  them  he  found  they 
were  his  relatives. 


The  Woman  who  Discovered  Copper.1 

One  time  a  man’s  wife  who  had  been  left  alone  was  stolen  by  the  people 
who  live  beyond  the  ocean  (the  Eskimo)  and  taken  away  to  their  country 
where  she  was  held  as  a  captive.  The  life  was  hard  on  her  and  she  went 
away  alone  and  came  to  the  shore  of  the  ocean.  While  she  was  there,  unable 
to  cross,  a  wolf  came  walking  through  the  water  toward  her.  He  told  her 
the  passage  was  a  good  one  and  that  she  had  better  cross  by  means  of  it. 
She  went  up  from  the  shore  with  the  intention  of  abandoning  her  one  child 
which  had  a  large  belly  as  a  result  of  his  greed.  She  killed  a  caribou  and 
boiled  the  blood  in  the  second  stomach  of  the  animal.  She  deserted  the 
boy  whose  attention  had  thus  been  diverted. 


1  This  myth  was  recorded  by  Samuel  Hearne  in  1771.  For  references  and  additional 
details,  see  p.  52  above. 


250 


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There  by  the  shore  of  the  ocean  metal  was  lying  under  the  ground.  The 
woman  was  passing  by  there  and  saw  some  of  it.  She  took  a  load  of  it  and 
carried  it  to  her  relatives.  They  came  to  know  the  metal  in  this  manner. 
The  men  all  went  for  the  metal  and  had  a  hard  time  bringing  their  loads 
home.  They  used  it  for  arrow  points;  it  was  of  great  value  to  them  for  it 
was  all  they  had  to  use.  It  was  metal  but  not  very  strong  for  it  was  copper. 

They  went  for  it  again  and  when  they  came  there,  there  were  many  men 
and  only  one  woman.  All  the  men  had  intercourse  with  the  woman  who 
sat  down  on  the  copper  and  it  disappeared  so  that  it  could  not  be  secured. 

They  went  for  it  again  after  that,  but  it  was  not  to  be  seen,  and  they 
could  not  secure  it.  The  woman  had  sunk  int<^  the  ground  until  it  came 
halfway  up  her  body.  Those  men  who  had  kept  her  jointly  were  unable 
to  secure  any  metal.  They  went  for  it  again  after  that  and  found  only  the 
woman’s  head  projecting  above  the  ground  which  now  came  up  around  her 
neck.  She  was  seen  again  after  two  years  and  she  was  still  alive.  That 
was  the  last  time  they  saw  her.  After  that  they  left  her  alone. 


Crow  Monopolizes  the  Game.1 

Once,  as  winter  was  coming  on,  the  people  were  dying  of  famine  for  the 
game  annuals  had  all  disappeared  from  that  region.  Crow  was  not  generally 
about  with  the  remainder  of  the  people  but  when  he  did  visit  them  he  ap¬ 
peared  to  be  well  fed  and  happy.  The  others  agreed  that  they  would  watch 
him  when  he  went  home  but  when  they  tried  it,  one  after  the  other  was 
forced  to  give  it  up  because  it  grew  dark  where  Crow  was  going  along. 
Telocye,  nighthawk,  was  the  last  one  who  could  still  see  him.  When  he 
too  was  about  to  lose  sight  of  Crow  he  asked  to  have  dust  thrown  in  front 
of  his  eyes.  When  this  was  done  the  nighthawk  could  still  see.2  “He 
disappears  into  the  ground  twice  and  beyond  that  I  cannot  see  him,” 
Nighthawk  reported.  When  asked  if  he  could  follow  him  he  said  he  thought 
he  could,  so  they  all  set  out  to  find  where  Crow  lived. 

When  they  came  there  they  found  Crow  had  driven  all  the  animals  into 
the  earth  and  had  shut  them  up.  That  was  the  reason  no  animals  had  been 
seen.  They  attacked  Crow  but  he  fought  back  with  a  club  and  it  was  not 
an  easy  victory.  The  door  behind  which  the  animals  were  confined  was 
made  of  fat.  They  were  trying* to  tear  it  down  so  the  animals  might  come 


1  This  story  is  known  to  many  North  American  tribes:  Chipewyan,  Lowie,  (a),  184; 
Petitot,  379-383;  Blackfoot,  Wissler  and  Duvall,  50-53;  Gros  Ventre,  Kroeber.  65;  Jicarilla 
Apache.  Goddard,  (a),  212-214. 

2  This  was  because  twilight,  when  the  nighthawk  could  see  best,  was  imitated. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


251 


out.  Crow  tried  in  vain  to  club  the  people  back  for  one  of  them  finally 
succeeded  in  breaking  down  the  door.  The  animals  all  came  out.  “They 
are  smart  animals,”  he  said  to  himself.  The  animals  all  came  out,  but 
Crow  found  a  way  to  make  it  difficult  to  kill  them.  He  threw  among  them 
bones  from  which  all  the  meat  had  been  scraped.  Again  they  were  in  trouble, 
for  the  animals  were  covered  all  over  with  bone  and  the  only  way  they 
could  be  killed  was  to  beat  them  on  the  nose  until  the  blood  vessels  burst 
and  they  bled  to  death.  The  people  were  still  dying  of  famine,  and  Crow 
himself  was  hungry.  Then  he  made  ribs  and  threw  them  among  the  ani¬ 
mals.  Because  he  did  that  the  animals  now  have  ribs. 

This  story  belongs  to  the  time  when  the  world  was  being  established. 


A  Man  is  Carried  away  by  a  Giant  Bird.1 

A  man  was  walking  one  time  at  night  when  suddenly  something  caught 
him  and  took  him  up  toward  the  sky.  The  man  wondered  what  had  hap¬ 
pened.  He  was  carried  to  a  large  nest  which  was  resting  in  a  tree.  The 
bird  in  the  nest  took  good  care  of  him  and  did  not  kill  him.  After  the  bird 
which  had  brought  him  had  gone  away  and  when  it  was  nearly  daylight 
another  bird  came  back.  “How  does  it  happen  you  smell  of  a  man?” 
this  bird  said  to  the  young  one  in  the  nest.  “  I  should  smell  of  a  man  when 
one  was  brought  here  for  me  to  eat,”  the  young  one  replied.  He  hid  the 
man  so  well  from  his  father  that  he  could  not  find  him.  The  birds  slept 
during  the  daytime  and  the  man  came  safely  down  to  the  ground.  He 
gathered  a  great  quantity  of  knots  and  dry  wood  which  he  placed  at  the 
foot  of  the  tree.  He  set  this  pile  on  fire  and  the  tree  caught  fire  high  up 
where  the  birds  were  sitting.  Their  wings  were  all  burned  and  they  fell 
down.  After  that  they  walked  around  on  the  ground.  Before  that  they 
were  the  things  that  frighten  people. 


The  Underwater  People. 

While  the  people  were  sitting  by  the  camp  they  suddenly  saw  a  young 
man  passing  along  carrying  a  blanket  on  his  back.  “  Where  are  you  going 
and  what  are  you  going  to  do?”  one  of  them  asked  him.  “I  am  going  to 
become  a  young  man  again,”  he  replied.  “  How  will  you  do  that?  We  will 
go  with  you,”  they  said  to  him.  “  Do  as  you  please,”  the  stranger  replied. 


1  The  Chipewyan  story  is  more  detailed,  p.  11,  above. 


252 


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[Vol.  X , 


The  young  man  who  had  spoken  and  two  of  his  brothers-in-law  went  with 
him.  They  walked  along  until  they  came  to  a  lake.  Suddenly  this  man 
who  had  been  walking  ahead  said  “Xwui”  and  went  through  the  ice  to  the 
bottom  of  the  lake  where  he  had  a  wife.  “You  do  as  I  do,”  he  told  his 
companions.  There  were  many  skin  tipis  standing  there  and  many  people 
walking  about.  They  went  toward  one  of  the  tipis  which  was  very  large. 
The  stranger  walked  ahead  and  the  others  did  as  he  did  according  to  the 
directions  he  had  given  them.  Suddenly,  someone  jumped  on  the  foot  of 
the  man  who  had  suggested  accompanying  the  stranger.  It  was  a  frog 
that  did  it,  but  he  thought  it  was  a  man.  The  man  who  had  gone  ahead  as 
the  leader  had  a  wife  there  and  he  used  to  go  there  to  visit. 

It  seemed  to  them  they  had  been  there  but  a  short  time,  when  the  head 
man  of  the  underwater  people  said  to  them,  “  I  do  not  like  it  that  the  minds 
of  your  relatives  are  so  intent  on  us.”  They  started  back  in  a  canoe  the 
head  man  made  for  them.  “  Take  care  how  you  use  my  canoe,  for  it  is  not 
•very  good,”  he  warned  them  as  they  started  away.  They  came  nearly  to 
the  shore  in  it  when  it  melted  as  the  owner  of  it  had  told  them  it  would. 
Two  of  the  men  came  ashore,  but  two  of  them  were  missing,  one  of  the  young 
men  and  his  brother-in-law.  The  two  who  got  ashore  believed  the  others 
were  dead,  but  as  they  were  sitting  on  the  bank  they  saw  the  head  of  a  man 
appear  and  reappear.  The  man  swam  ashore  and  stood  up.  The  other 
one  was  seen  swimming  as  a  jackfish.  He  turned  into  a  man  so  that  finally 
all  of  them  came  ashore  and  returned  to  their  camp. 


The  Beaver  who  Went  Home  with  a  Cree.1  —  First  Version. 

There  was  a  powerful  man  all  of  whose  young  men  had  been  killed  by 
the  Cree.  He  himself,  a  Beaver,  was  the  only  one  alive.  There  was  a 
Cree.  too,  all  of  whose  followers  had  been  killed.  Just  the  two  men  were 
alive,  and  they  tried  in  vain  to  get  the  best  of  each  other.  Then  the  Cree 
went  to  his  camp  accompanied  by  the  Beaver.  There  was  another  Cree  at 
the  camp  who  was  a  powerful  man.  When  these  men  approached  and  the 
people  saw  them,  the  Cree  was  asked  what  he  had  done  with  his  band  and 
how  it  happened  that  he  was  accompanied  by  one  of  the  enemy.  The  head 
man  of  the  camp  directed  that  a  fire  be  made  to  burn  the  stranger.  They 
got  a  lot  of  wood  and  set  fire  to  it.  Then  they  brought  the  man  up  to  the 
fire  which  was  burning  fiercely.  It  happened  that  the  man  they  were  going 


1  This  story  with  some  additional  incidents  was  obtained  from  the  Chipewyan,  p.  55 
above. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


2.53 


to  roast  carried  a  wooden  spoon.  He  held  this  up  between  himself  and  the 
fire,  but  it  kept  catching  fire. 

He  began  to  study  the  situation  intently.  “  I  wish  otters  would  run 
among  the  people,”  he  said  to  himself.  Then  otters  rushed  among  the 
people  who  were  standing  at  a  distance.  “Otters  are  running  among  us,” 
one  of  them  said.  They  rushed  away  from  there  and  where  there  had  been 
many  people  there  were  now  none.  He  sat  there  by  himself  while  the 
otters  rushed  out  on  the  ice.  His  former  companion,  alone,  was  running 
near  them.  Then  the  Beaver  man  himself  ran  with  them.  At  one  place 
where  the  otters  were  running  the  Beaver  ran  in  front  of  them  and  caught 
two  of  them.  He  threw  them  at  his  former  companion  who  caught  them 
both  and  threw  them  back.  The  Beaver  caught  them  again.  Just  as  he 
caught  them  the  other  Cree  said,  “Do  it  to  me.”  He  threw  them  at  him. 
They  really  knocked  him  down  because  the  Beaver  was  stronger  than  he. 
They  started  to  kill  him  and  just  the  otters  were  coming  out  of  the  snow 
covered  with  blood.  The  man  himself  was  under  the  snow  and  the  otters 
only  were  to  be  seen.  Then  the  Cree  who  had  been  the  companion  of  the 
Beaver  caught  the  otters,  held  them  together,  and  killed  them.  He  was  a 
powerful  man.  “  This  man  was  with  me  and  alive  and  yet  you  spoke  as 
you  did,”  he  said  to  the  other  Cree. 

He  gave  one  of  his  wives  to  his  companion  and  made  a  relative  of  him. 
The  Beaver  lived  with  him  and  had  some  children.  After  this,  his  younger 
brother,  a  boy,  started  after  him  accompanied  by  some  others.  He  saw 
his  brother’s  tracks  and  followed  him.  He  came  back  and  reported  that 
the  man  they  were  to  attack  was  powerful,  but  that  now  they  had  started 
they  would  not  turn  back.  “  If  we  do  not  succeed  we  will  all  be  killed,” 
he  told  them.  “We  will  attack  them  tomorrow  morning.”  He  came  back 
and  worked  against  them  with  his  mind,  using  supernatural  power.  He 
appeared  to  kill  them. 

When  the  Beaver  heard  his  younger  brothers  attacking  them,  he  imme¬ 
diately  ran  to  his  former  partner  and  began  to  kill  him.  “Now  I  can  do 
nothing,”  the  Cree  said,  and  after  that  was  killed.  Some  of  the  younger 
brothers  were  killed,  but  they  killed  all  of  the  Cree. 


The  Beaver  who  Went  Home  with  a  Cree.—  Second  Version.1 

The  Cree  living  to  the  east  were  the  first  to  come  in  contact  with  white 
people  and  consequently  had  guns  before  the  Beaver  did.  The  Cree  used 


1  Obtained  in  English  from  Ike  through  John  Bourassa. 


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to  fight  with  the  Beaver  and  by  the  use  of  their  flintlock  guns  killed  a  good 
many  of  them.  Among  the  Beaver  were  some  good  medicinemen  who  had 
flint  for  medicine  and  were  able  therefore  to  keep  the  flints  on  the  guns 
from  acting  on  the  powder. 

There  was  a  battle  one  time  in  which  there  was  a  Beaver  who  was  a 
powerful  medicineman  and  on  the  other  side  a  Cree  who  was  equally  strong. 
All  the  Cree  in  the  band  were  killed  except  this  Cree  medicineman  and  all 
the  Beaver  save  their  medicinemen.  These  two  being  left  were  so  evenly 
matched  in  supernatural  powers  neither  could  prevail  over  the  other.  The 
Beaver  went  home  with  the  Cree  and  became  a  second  husband  of  the 
Cree’s  wife,  living  in  ,the  same  tipi  with  him. 

The  Beaver  was  bad  and  used  to  go  about  killing  Cree  whenever  he  could 
find  one  by  himself.  He  was  so  powerful  as  a  medicineman  the  Cree  could 
not  kill  him.  One  day  as  he  was  returning  from  a  hunt  he  fell  in  with  a 
Cree  who  had  killed  two  swans  and  was  taking  them  home.  The  Beaver 
killed  the  Cree  and  took  the  swans.  When  the  swans  were  cooked,  he  left 
a  portion  for  this  Cree  he  had  killed,  thinking  to  hide  his  guilt. 

One  day  as  he  was  hunting  he  met  his  Beaver  friends.  He  planned  with 
them  an  attack  upon  the  Cree  promising  them  the  aid  of  his  supernatural 
help.  He  spent  the  night  making  medicine  to  weaken  the  Cree,  but  told 
the  Cree  the  medicine  was  to  make  them  irresistible.  The  Beaver  had 
agreed  to  join  the  attacking  party  some  distance  from  the  camp  to  protect 
them  by  his  medicine,  but  fearing  they  would  not  be  able  to  kill  the  powerful 
Cree  medicineman  he  rushed  into  his  tipi  and  said,  “I  am  coming  to  kill 
you.”  The  Cree,  baring  his  breast  said,  “Stab  me  here.”  The  Beaver  did 
so  and  killed  him.  Then  the  Beaver  killed  all  the  Cree.1 

A  Man  Marries  the  Daughter  of  a  Bird. 

There  was  a  man  who  was  traveling  around  alone.  At  first  he  did  not 
come  where  there  were  any  people,  but  after  a  time  he  came  where  there 
was  a  small  man  living  by  himself  who  had  two  daughters.  He  was  given 
one  of  these  for  a  wife  and  lived  there  with  them. 


i  The  interpreter  omitted  the  two  following  incidents  which  the  narrator  included  in  the 
story. 

At  the  first  fight  the  Cree  sent  two  otters  against  the  Beaver  which  the  Beaver  medicine¬ 
man  caught  and  taking  one  in  each  hand  knocked  them  together  killing  them. 

When  the  Beaver  man  met  his  friends  he  went  to  their  camp.  One  of  his  moccasins  was 
torn  and  his  sister-in-law  mended  it  for  him  using  a  piece  of  mooseskin  which  had  been  used 
to  tie  up  vermilion  paint.  When  he  returned,  his  Cree  wife  noticed  this  mended  place,  but 
said  nothing  and  did  not  warn  the  Cree. 

The  man’s  name  in  Chipewyan  was  said  by  Fournier  to  be  Satselle':  compare  pp.  54,  55 
above. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


255 


“There  are  some  moose  that  live  over  here,”  the  small  man  said  to  his 
son-in-law  one  day,  “  let  us  go  over  there.”  They  went  over  there.  He  was 
living  on  birds  only.  “  You  stand  here  and  watch  that  big  tree  and  I  will 
drive  the  game  to  you,”  the  father-in-law  said.  The  Beaver  was  watching 
there  supposing  it  was  moose  that  was  meant.  Not  long  after,  some  birds 
flew  by,  but  he  paid  no  attention  to  them.  After  that  his  father-in-law  ran 
up  and  asked  where  they  were.  “  I  did  not  see  any  moose,  only  some  birds 
flew  by,”  the  man  replied.  Those  birds  are  called  tsebise  and  stay  here  all 
winter.  “You  say  only  birds  passed.  Those  are  the  ones.  They  are 
moose,”  the  father-in-law  said. 

Then  the  young  man  was  angry  and  went  back  into  the  woods.  Two 
owls  had  lighted  there,  and  he  went  to  them  and  killed  them  both.  He  was 
angry.  He  brought  them  to  the  old  man  and  threw  them  at  him.  The 
head  of  one  of  the  owls  fell  in  the  fork  of  a  stick.  The  old  man  tried  in  vain 
to  lift  it  out  and  when  he  could  not,  he  cut  it  up  where  it  lay.  He  told  the 
son-in-law  to  go  home  and  tell  his  mother-in-law  to  come  after  the  meat 
quickly.  When  he  came  home  he  told  them,  “  Go  after  the  meat  quickly, 
he  tells  you.”  They  went  there  and  brought  the  meat  back.  They  made 
a  soup  of  the  owl’s  head.  The  old  man  said  to  his  son,  “Go  and  tell  your 
brother-in-law  to  come  here  and  eat  the  head  soup.”  When  he  told  his 
brother-in-law  that,  he  replied  that  he  hated  the  water  of  owls’  eyes.  “  I 
will  not  go  there,”  he  said.  The  old  man  was  angry  about  it. 

The  next  morning  the  large  man  went  hunting  and  killed  two  real  moose. 
They  went  out  for  the  meat  and  the  old  man  went  out  behind  them.  The 
moose  had  not  yet  been  cut  up,  and  when  he  saw  the  moose  he  was  afraid 
and  ran  away.  “  It  is  the  large  animal  that  eats  people  he  means,”  the  old 
man  said  and  then  he  ran  away  from  it.  Those  are  the  birds  one  sees  around 
here  which  stay  all  winter.  They  say  those  birds  were  men  at  first. 


A  Man  Turns  into  a  Squirrel  and  Escapes  from  a  Bear. 

A  man  lay  down  for  the  night  by  a  river  where  there  was  a  trail  with  the 
prints  of  animals’  feet.  He  heard  a  big  noise  made  by  a  large  bear.  He  ran 
to  it  and  then  he  ran  away  from  it.  There  was  nothing  he  could  do  and  he 
could  not  get  away  from  the  bear.  He  climbed  a  tree  and  the  bear  jumped 
up  and  climbed  until  he  was  not  far  below  him.  The  bear  was  so  big  and 
fat  he  coidd  not  climb  higher  and  he  would  not  go  away.  The  man  was 
worn  out  for  sleep  and  he  could  not  go  down  for  he  was  afraid  of  the  bear 
which  was  watching  him.  “What  can  I  do?”  he  said  to  himself.  He 
turned  himself  into  a  squirrel  and  jumped  far  over  to  another  tree  which 


256 


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was  standing  there.  He  ran  to  the  trunk  of  that  tree  and  went  down  with¬ 
out  the  bear  which  was  sitting  high  up  in  the  tree  knowing  it.  The  man 
gathered  many  knots  and  brought  them  on  his  back  to  the  foot  of  the  tree 
and  set  them  on  fire.  The  fire  shot  high  up  the  tree  and  set  it  on  fire. 
The  bear  was  big  and  could  not  do  anything.  He  began  to  burn  and  fell 
down.  He  became  a  man  again  and  ran  off.  That  is  the  way  he  avoided 
being  killed. 


Watc’agic  Kills  the  Dancing  Birds.1 

Once  a  man  who  had  all  kinds  of  birds  for  his  brothers  was  traveling. 
He  came  along  where  there  were  very  many  birds  about.  When  they  saw 
this  man  carrying  something  on  his  back  one  of  them  asked,  “  Brother,  what 
are  you  carrying?  ”  “  They  are  my  songs,”  he  replied.  “  Sing  them  for  us, 

brother;  and  we  will  dance,”  said  the  bird.  “  Those  who  dance  to  my  songs 
must  keep  their  eyes  shut,”  the  man  said.  “We  will  do  as  you  say,”  the 
birds  agreed.  “Wait,  I  will  build  a  dancing  camp  for  you,”  the  man  said. 
When  he  had  the  camp  ready  he  said,  “Now,  come  on  and  dance.”  The 
man  was  drumming  for  the  birds  who  were  dancing  with  closed  eyes.  He 
was  wringing  the  necks  of  the  birds  without  the  other  birds  discovering  it. 
There  were  many  of  them  and  he  killed  them  all.  That  man  was  not  afraid 
of  anything  because  all  the  animals  were  his  brothers. 


The  Earth  Recovered  by  Diving.2 

At  first  there  was  no  land  and  no  people,  nothing  but  birds  living  on  the 
water.  They  were  the  only  living  things.  They  came  together  at  a  certain 
place  and  one  of  them  said,  “I  wonder  where  the  land  is?”  They  were 
looking  for  land  without  success.  One  of  them  tried  to  find  land  at  the 
bottom  of  the  water,  but  did  not  succeed.  They  all  tried,  but  were  not  able 
to  find  it. 

One  of  them,  named  Xak’ale,  also  dived  into  the  water  saying  he  would 
look  for  land.  He  went  down  disappearing  from  sight.  He  was  gone  a 


1  A  widely  distributed  story.  The  Jicarilla  Apache  tell  it  of  Coyote  and  Prairie  dogs, 
Goddard,  (b),  230.  Dr.  Lowie  (p.  199)  recorded  the  incident  among  the  Chipewyan. 

2  In  reply  to  questions  it  was  learned  that  the  earth  is  believed  to  have  disappeared 
during  a  deluge  from  which  certain  people  saved  themselves  by  turning  into  waterbirds.  The 
deluge  was  caused  by  the  melting  of  the  snow  which  accumulated  during  four  summerless 
years.  This  myth  in  a  more  complete  form  is  given  from  the  Chipewyan  by  Petitot,  pp.  373- 
.378,  although  the  Biblical  Noah  seems  to  appear  in  that  version.  The  incident  of  diving  for 
the  earth  is  very  widespread  in  North  America. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


257 

long  time  and  when  he  came  up,  he  was  on  his  back  vainly  trying  to  breathe. 
He  breathed  a  little  and  said,  “Look  here  under  my  finger  nails.”  They 
looked  under  his  nails  and  found  some  earth  there  which  they  took  out. 
Xak’ale  who  brought  the  land  up  was  small. 

Trees  grew  again  on  the  land  which  was  taken  from  the  water  and  the 
earth  was  made  again.  They  say  birds  did  this  and  the  one  who  succeeded 
was  named  Xak’ale.  , 


The  Giant  Beaver  and  Muskrat. 

At  first  they  say  there  was  a  large  man  who  chiseled  for  a  large  beaver. 
He  worked  in  vain  for  he  could  not  kill  it.  He  could  not  find  its  track 
anywhere  nearby.  He  went  out  on  the  large  frozen  lake  and  sawr  the  beaver 
walking  along  under  the  ice.  He  tapped  on  the  ice  and  drove  the  beaver 
back  into  its  house  where  he  killed  it. 

She  had  young  ones  in  her  and  because  of  that  the  ice  would  not  remain 
quiet.  He  cut  the  mother  open,  took  out  the  young  ones,  and  put  them  in 
the  water.  The  ice  then  became  quiet.  That  was  why  he  did  it.  They 
say  both  the  man  and  the  beaver  were  giants.  The  beaver  house  is  still 
standing.1 

Out  to  the  east  where  there  are  no  trees,  away  from  the  country  in  which 
beaver  are  found,  there  used  to  be  a  muskrat.  If  a  canoe  passed  by,  the 
muskrat  would  hear  it.  They  say  one  did  not  speak  when  he  paddled  by 
the  place.  It  is  not  long  since  someone  in  passing  there  felt  the  water  move. 
He  is  not  there  now  and  since  he  is  gone  they  do  not  feel  the  water  move. 


The  Redeeming  of  a  Doomed  Man. 

One  time  the  people  were  having  a  bad  quarrel  and  because  of  it  one 
man  tried  to  injure  another  through  his  supernatural  power.  “  There  is  no 
one  stronger  than  I  and  because  of  that  you  will  go  no  further  than  that 
patch  of  white  soil,”  he  said  of  the  man  he  wished  to  injure. 

The  man  went  hunting  and  came  to  a  white  patch  of  soil.2  An  old  man 
sitting  there  said  to  the  man  as  he  came  near  him,  “  Quick,  go  back  and  get 


1  Said  to  have  happened  on  Great  Slave  Lake.  Stories  of  giants  in  the  north  are  com¬ 
mon  (Petitot,  132-141.  1G8;  Lovvie,  (a),  188,  189  above);  the  particular  incident  explains  a 
local  hill  as  is  indicated  in  the  last  sentence. 

2  The  Beaver  seers  refer  to  winter  as  the  white  patch  and  summer  as  the  dark  patch ; 
winter  may  have  been  the  original  meaning  here  and  the  Indian  informant  has  wrongly 
construed  it. 


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your  personal  property.”  The  man  started  back  for  his  property.  “  Hurry,” 
he  called  after  him.  The  man  came  back  to  his  camp  and  was  tying  up  his 
things,  when  his  father-in-law  asked  what  he  was  going  to  do  with  his 
property.  “  A  man  who  was  sitting  in  front  of  me  told  me  to  come  back  to 
him  quickly  and  I  am  doing  it,”  replied  the  son-in-law.  “  You  did  not  used 
to  be  afraid  of  a  man’s  mind.  Pay  no  attention  to  what  he  said.  Sit  here 
and  I  will  go  to  him,”  the  father-in-law  said. 

He  took  an  otterskin  and  started  away  to  the  place  where  the  man  was 
sitting.  When  he  came  to  the  white  spot,  and  the  man  sitting  there  saw 
him,  he  called  out,  “  Am  I  nobody  that  I  call  a  man  and  you  come  instead?” 
“Well,  let  him  alone  anyway,”  he  said.  He  made  a  trade  with  him  for  the 
otterskin  and  left  him. 

They  say  the  old  man  did  that.  He  bought  off  his  son-in-law  who  was 
about  to  be  killed.  That  man  was  an  underground  person.  They  say  the 
old  man  saved  his  son-in-law’s  life  by  his  supernatural  power. 


The  Equally  Matched  Magicians. 

The  people  were  jealous  of  each  other  and  because  of  that  one  man  had 
camped  alone.  A  party  of  Indians  started  to  go  to  this  man’s  camp,  but 
when  they  came  within  sight  of  it  the  man  who  was  jealous  of  him  said  he 
would  go  to  the  camp  alone.  He  started  toward  it  changing  himself  into  a 
bear  when  he  came  near.  The  people  saw  him  as  he  was  running  along  and 
warned  the  man  for  whom  he  was  coming  that  his  enemy  was  approaching. 
When  the  man  heard  what  was  said  he  turned  himself  into  a  buffalo  and 
jumped  out.  They  met  each  other;  the  one  a  buffalo  and  the  other  a  bear. 
Neither  could  get  the  advantage  over  the  other  because  they  were  afraid 
of  each  other.  Then  the  man  who  was  a  buffalo  spoke  to  the  man  who  was  a 
bear  saying,  “Your  food  is  so  short  you  are  saying  to  yourself,  ‘What  can 
I  do?’  and  that  way  you  run  toward  me.”  The  bear  too,  said  to  the 
buffalo,  “  \T>u,  too,  because  your  teeth  are  short  you  are  saying  to  yourself, 
‘  What  can  I  do?  ’  That  is  the  matter  with  you.”  They  were  both  alike  in 
power  and  immediately  made  friends. 


A  Magician  Cuts  his  Throat  with  Impunity. 

There  was  a  man  who  had  great  supernatural  power.  The  man  with 
whom  he  shared  a  wife  said  to  himself,  “I,  too,  am  just  the  same  sort.” 
Thinking  they  would  test  their  power  they  decided  to  cut  off  each  other’s 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


259 


heads.  The  first  man  had  his  head  cut  off  but  he  did  not  die.  Then  his 
companion  cut  his  throat.  He  tried  in  vain  to  fix  it  again.  He  drew  his 
hand  across  his  throat  twice  but  it  made  no  difference.  He  was  unable  to 
restore  himself.  He  went  to  his  companion  and  said,  “  I  thought  I  was 
the  same  kind  as  you  but  I  am  not.”  Then  his  partner  called  him  to  him 
and  put  his  hand  on  his  throat.  After  that  he  got  well.  They  lived  all 
right.  They  were  only  testing  themselves. 

At  first  before  there  were  any  white  people,  the  Indians  were  powerful 
men.  They  secured  their  livings  by  means  of  supernatural  power.  That 
was  when  they  used  to  wear  leather. 


A  Magician  Spends  a  Winter  in  a  Lake. 

A  man  was  put  in  a  sack  which  was  then  lowered  into  a  lake  through  a 
hole  which  had  been  cut  in  the  ice.  The  man  to  whom  it  was  done  had 
said,  “Do  that  to  me.”  He  thought  he  had  supernatural  power  to  endure 
that.  The  others  kept  watch  while  he  sat  in  the  water  all  winter  until  the 
snow  was  nearly  melted.  They  saw  he  was  still  alive  and  took  him  out. 

Some  who  tried  to  do  that  died  and  others  lived.  Those  who  were  not 
very  powerful  supernaturally,  died.  Many  who  did  such  things  to  each 
other  died.  Before  white  people  came  there  was  no  sickness.  At  first 
they  died  only  when  they  were  using  supernatural  power  on  each  other. 


A  Magician  Escapes  the  C’ree  by  Turning  into  a  Buffalo. 

There  were  many  people  living  together.  Among  them  was  an  old 
man  who  was  going  to  make  new  teeth  for  himself.  While  the  Beaver  were 
camped  there  for  him  the  Cree  came  and  attacked  them.  The  other 
people  all  ran  away  but  that  old  man  did  not  get  up.  He  was  singing  his 
medicine  songs  and  did  not  know  the  Cree  had  come  there.  They  went  off 
after  the  Beaver  but  did  not  kill  them.  When  the  Cree  came  back  they 
heard  a  man  singing.  They  went  to  him.  The  old  man  was  in  a  lodge. 
He  pushed  the  poles  up  high  so  that  he  could  be  seen.  There  was  no  man 
there  only  a  buffalo  which  was  about  to  attack  them.  They  were  afraid 
of  him.  The  buffalo  was  the  old  man. 

He  had  one  child.  “  I  will  make  my  teeth  come  again,”  he  said.  That  is 
why  they  had  made  a  camp  for  him.  He  had  said  he  would  make  himself  a 
young  man  again.  They  say  that  is  the  way  they  used  to  do.  When  old 
age  was  going  to  kill  them  they  used  to  rejuvenate  themselves  in  a  lodge. 


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Fournier’s  Grandfather’s  Supernatural  Power.1 

The  informant’s  father’s  father  was  a  great  medicineman.  A  party  of 
Beaver  were  traveling  in  midwinter  beyond  Hay  River  toward  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  A  band  had  been  separated  from  the  main  party  and  through 
bad  luck  in  hunting  the  men  had  all  starved.  The  surviving  women  and 
children  came  to  the  grandfather’s  camp.  The  old  man,  displeased  because 
some  of  his  relatives  in  this  band  had  died,  said  he  would  make  medicine 
so  that  none  of  his  relatives  would  have  trouble  in  killing  all  the  game  they 
wanted  to  eat. 

He  made  a  medicine  pole,  painted  it,  and  set  it  up.  He  had  a  man 
stand  beside  the  pole  and  made  it  as  high  as  the  man.  He  then  began  to 
sing,  and  although  it  was  the  middle  of  the  winter  it  thundered  and  began  to 
snow.  The  snow  fell  until  it  was  as  high  as  the  top  of  the  pole.  Then  they 
could  kill  all  the  game  they  needed.  Just  the  heads  of  the  moose  were 
sticking  out  of  the  snow  and  they  could  be  killed  with  spears.  When  the 
snow  melted  the  water  was  so  high  that  the  beaver  gnawed  the  tops  of  the 
tallest  cottonwood  trees  along  Hay  River.2 

Thunderbirds. 

They  breed  where  there  is  a  high  hill.  They  destroy  all  the  timber 
where  they  make  their  nest.  They  live  on  every  high  mountain.  The 
places  where  they  live  are  dangerous.  Only  men  with  strong  supernatural 
power  can  see  them.  Those  are  the  only  ones  who  know  where  they  live. 
As  soon  as  a  person  who  has  nothing  of  that  kind  (supernatural  power) 
comes  near,  they  attack  him.  The  people  who  do  not  see  them  are  afraid 
of  them.  They  say  they  can  kill  a  man  because  they  are  strong.  “Earth’s 
roots”  are  the  only  things  which  are  stronger  than  they  are.  They  tear 
twisted  trees  to  pieces.3 

The  Boy  who  was  Cared  for  by  the  Wolf.4 

One  time  there  was  a  man  who  with  many  children  was  living  by  himself. 
Tn  the  middle  of  the  winter  his  wife  died,  and  he  went  to  join  the  other 


1  Obtained  in  English  from  Fournier  through  John  Bourassa. 

2  The  informant  was  in  his  grandfather’s  camp  and  remembers  this  incident  well. 

’In  reply  to  a  question  the  informant  added  that  the  thunderbirds  are  about  as  large  as 
the  jackpine  partridges.  He  said  his  father  used  to  go  to  see  the  thunderbirds. 

1  This  story  was  affirmed  to  be  true  by  the  narrator,  John  Bourassa,  one  of  the  most 
intelligent  of  the  mixed-bloods  in  the  vicinity  of  Vermilion.  Lowie  has  a  story  of  a  bear  who 
gave  suck  to  a  grown  man,  p.  195,  above. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


201 


people.  He  had  been  taking  care  of  an  orphan  child,  but  now  could  do 
nothing  for  him,  so  he  deserted  him,  leaving  him  alone  in  the  camp. 

When  he  passed  by  the  next  spring,  he  found  the  child  was  still  alive 
and  took  him  along,  “  How  did  you  get  through  the  winter  without 
freezing?”  he  asked  the  child.  “  A  wolf  took  care  of  me.  He  slept  with  me 
and  made  a  fire  for  me.  That  is  why  I  did  not  freeze  to  death.  He  also 
fed  me  with  meat,”  the  boy  said. 

The  boy  lived  long  after  this,  until  he  was  of  middle  age  and  finally  died 
of  some  ailment. 


The  Loaned  Hunting  Dog. 

An  old  man  had  a  hunting  dog  which  was  very  good  for  moose.  That 
was  because  it  was  not  an  ordinary  dog  but  a  wolf.  A  young  man  saw  a 
moose  track,  but  did  not  succeed  in  killing  the  moose.  He  came  to  the  old 
man  and  said,  “  Grandfather,  I  saw  a  moose  track,  lend  me  your  dog  and  I 
will  go  after  it.”  “My  dog  is  mean,”  the  old  man  replied,  “you  must 
promise  to  treat  the  dog  exactly  as  1  tell  you.”  The  young  man  agreed  to 
do  so.  “  If  you  kill  a  moose  the  first  thing  you  must  do  is  to  give  the  dog 
the  end  of  the  tongue.  He  is  only  pleased  when  I  do  that.  You  must  do 
the  same.  Do  not  fail  to  do  as  I  do,  my  grandson.” 

The  young  man  went  hunting  with  the  dog  and  killed  a  moose.  In¬ 
stead  of  doing  as  the  old  man  had  told  him  he  cut  off  the  liver  and  threw  it 
to  the  dog.  The  dog  was  angry  and  did  not  eat  the  liver  but  went  off  and 
left  it  there.  The  young  man  cut  up  the  moose  and  started  home.  Being 
thirsty  he  went  to  get  a  drink.  The  dog  which  was  lying  there  jumped  on 
the  man  as  he  drank  and  disemboweled  him,  killing  him.  He  ate  all  the 
man’s  ribs. 

Neither  the  man  nor  the  dog  returned.  The  Indians  at  the  camp  were 
going  to  bed,  but  the  old  man  said,  “  There  must  be  some  reason  my  dog  is 
not  here.  He  has  been  howling  and  he  does  not  do  that  without  some 
reason.  I  told  the  young  man  repeatedly  not  to  treat  the  dog  in  any  way 
differently  from  the  way  I  treat  him.  I  loaned  him  the  dog  because  he  asked 
me  for  him  so  many  times.  The  dog  has  probably  killed  him.  I  fear  he  is 
not  living.  Look  for  him  anil  see  if  you  can  find  out  what  has  happened.” 

They  went  out  to  look  for  him  and  came  upon  his  tracks  where  he  had 
been  approaching  the  camp.  They  saw  his  body  lying  there  in  front  of 
them.  The  dog  had  killed  him.  The  dog  was  not  there  and  they  did  not 
know  where  he  had  gone. 

The  old  man  who  had  been  living  by  the  dog’s  aid  said,  “  How  shall  I 
live?  The  dog  with  which  I  got  my  living  has  left  me  alone.”  He  was  much 
displeased.  He  called  the  dog  and  the  next  morning  it  came  back  to  him. 


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He  lived  with  the  help  of  the  dog  again.  The  dog  did  not  kill  the  old  man 
who  was  able  to  live  on  good  meat  again.  They  say  that  was  a  very  good 
dog. 

They  tell  this  story  about  the  time  the  world  was  beginning. 


The  Hunting  Fetish. 

A  man  was  starving  and  it  seemed  he  could  not  live.  He  was  dying  of 
hunger  because  the  moose  detected  his  presence  before  he  could  get  up  to 
them.  They  knew  he  was  a  powerful  man.  He  was  so  weak  he  could  not 
walk  very  far.  He  came  where  there  were  some  moose  but  before  he  could 
shoot  them  they  rushed  off.  He  had  a  little  moose,  an  image,  that  used  to 
sit  on  him.  He  pulled  that  out  and  waved  it  in  front  of  the  moose,  but  they 
took  no  notice  of  it  and  continued  to  run  off.  He  put  the  little  moose  under 
the  snow  and  himself  died  immediately. 

The  little  moose  was  the  same  as  his  own  flesh.  They  say  he  was  using 
it  to  hunt  with  at  the  time  when  people  were  hunting  with  arrows. 

Because  a  moose  liked  the  man  it  took  out  its  own  little  one  and  put  it 
in  the  man’s  body  and  that  gave  him  good  luck.  He  must  have  angered 
the  moose  and  because  of  that  he  died  of  hunger.  They  say  that  was  the 
way  it  happened.1 


The  Man  who  Talked  to  the  Buffalo. 

One  time  there  was  a  man  who  used  to  talk  to  the  buffalo,  and  they 
would  do  what  he  told  them  to  do.  He  would  tell  them  to  go  to  a  certain 
place,  to  go  into  the  water,  and  to  give  him  food.  Then  they  would  go  into 
the  water  backwards,  and  the  Indians  would  kill  them  with  a  spear.  The 
calves  would  say,  “unnai”  (mother)  just  as  plainly  as  people  do.  They 
took  hold  of  them  and  killed  them.  There  was  one  bull  they  did  not  kill. 
He  always  ran  through  between  the  people.2  Then  they  would  take  the 
dead  buffalo  ashore  and  eat  them.3 


1  The  last  paragraph  was  obtained  in  response  to  a  question  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  story. 

2  The  narrator  in  conversation  afterward  referred  to  the  well-known  story  of  the  man  who 
married  a  buffalo.  The  bull,  which  invariably  escaped,  was  the  result  of  this  union.  ‘ ‘  There 
was  a  young  man  who  disappeared.  They  supposed  he  went  among  the  buffalo.  After  that 
they  used  to  see  a  bull  with  hair  just  like  a  man’s.  The  buffalo  understands  what  people  say 
because  a  man  used  to  live  among  them.” 

3  He  added  that  the  female  organs  of  the  buffalo  cows  were  cut  off  and  pushed  back  into 
the  water  before  the  bodies  were  removed.  No  one  was  allowed  to  look  while  this  was  being 
done. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


263 


The  Potency  of  War  Songs.1 

Once  when  breechcloths  of  skin  were  still  worn,  a  party  of  Indians  went 
to  war.  They  failed  to  find  the  enemy  they  were  after  and  therefore  could 
not  accomplish  their  purpose.  They  began  to  sing  for  the  Cree  and  then 
they  saw  them.  They  started  for  the  place  where  the  Cree  were,  but  when 
they  came  near,  decided  to  postpone  the  attack  until  the  next  morning. 
While  they  were  waiting  they  tried  their  power  by  lifting  out  large  stones.2 
The  prints  of  their  hands  can  still  be  seen  where  they  took  hold  of  the  rock. 
They  made  the  attack  and  killed  them  all,  leaving  not  one  of  them  living. 


The  Curing  of  a  Woman  with  a  Medicine  Lodge. 

This  too  is  a  man’s  story.  His  wife  was  very  sick  and  it  seemed  she 
could  not  live  long.  A  medicine  lodge  was  put  up  near  her,  and  they  were 
wondering  who  would  use  it.  “I  will  be  the  one  to  use  it,”  a  certain  man 
said.  They  paid  him  well  to  do  this.  He  sang  his  songs.  The  woman 
did  not  move  and  they  thought  she  was  nearly  dead,  but  he  caused  her  to 
live  again.  There  were  many  men  sitting  there  when  he  did  that.  He 
cured  her  and  she  lived  happily. 

This  story  belongs  to  the  time  of  the  world’s  end. 


The  Medicine  Lodge. 

One  pole  is  stood  up  over  which  a  cover  is  stretched  by  means  of 
ropes  which  are  attached  to  pegs  driven  in  the  ground.  The  lodge  does 
not  stand  firmly  until  the  man  enters,  but  when  he  goes  in  and  begins  to 
sing  the  cover  stretches  tight  as  if  a  wind  were  blowing  inside  of  it.  It  is 
called  cuns. 


1  This  was  told  in  response  to  a  question  about  a  stone  that  used  to  be  by  the  ford  at 
Haliska,  west  of  Vermilion.  It  is  the  common  belief  that  if  this  stone  is  moved  from  its 
place  it  returns  of  itself.  The  informant  said  a  half-breed  once  threw  it  into  the  creek, 
but  when  he  next  passed  it  was  back  in  its  place.  When  the  informant  was  asked  where  it 
is  now,  he  said  it  was  near  Peace  River  where  a  half-breed  had  carried  it.  He  gave  as  his 
opinion  that  the  stone  had  been  so  long  unused  that  no  life  was  now  in  it. 

2  Two  stones  were  pulled  out  of  the  ground  by  the  competing  men.  The  stronger  (in 
magic)  pulled  out  the  larger. 


264 


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The  Man  who  Entered  a  Fish. 

I  started  out,  I  was  not  going  far.  I  paddled  away  in  a  canoe  I  had 
made.  I  was  just  paddling  about  on  the  river  when  I  was  inside  something 
and  suddenly  became  an  old  man.  Then  I  paddled  out  and  found  I  had 
been  inside  a  large  fish.  I  had  become  an  old  man. 


The  Man  who  Wintered  without  Food. 

Two  men,  each  of  whom  had  been  living  by  himself,  met  one  day.  One 
of  them  was  extremely  emaciated  but  the  other  still  had  a  little  flesh  on  his 
bones.  The  latter  asked  the  former  how  long  ago  he  last  ate  meat.  “  I  had 
something  to  eat,”  he  replied,  “when  the  moon  before  this  one  was  new.” 
“  You  eat  a  good  deal,”  said  the  one  who  still  had  some  flesh.  “You  had  a 
meal  last  month  and  you  are  already  beginning  to  starve;  I  ate  last  when  the 
first  snow  came  last  fall.”  They  two  passed  the  winter  thus. 

I  think  the  early  people  did  not  eat  much.1 


The  Origin  of  Mosquitoes. 

Once  there  was  a  mean  woman  who  always  scolded  her  husband.  She 
used  to  beat  him  all  the  time  too,  and  was  always  angry.  Afterwards  she 
died,  and  they  just  threw  her  body  away  without  burying  it.  Sometime 
after,  when  they  passed  by  there,  the  bones  were  lying  about.  The  husband 
kicked  the  skull,  saying,  “This  used  to  be  a  mean  woman.”  He  kicked  it 
until  he  smashed  it,  and  from  it  flew  out  a  flock  of  mosquitoes.  Since  then 
there  have  been  mosquitoes  in  the  world. 


The  Killing  of  the  Large  Human  Mosquitoes.2 

Long  ago  there  used  to  be  large  mosquitoes  which  killed  people.  Once 
when  a  company  of  people  was  traveling  along,  a  dog  lost  the  load  off  his 
back.  As  a  woman  was  looking  for  the  lost  bag  she  suddenly  saw  a  canoe 
with  someone  in  it  paddling  around  a  point.  The  woman  thought  immedi- 


1  A  remark  of  the  narrator. 

2  Obtained  from  Ike,  in  English  through  John  Bourassa. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


265 


ately  as  she  saw  him  that  he  must  be  one  of  the  kind  who  were  accustomed 
to  kill  people  and  that  he  would  kill  her.  She  climbed  a  tree  to  escape 
him.  As  he  was  coming  up  the  tree  after  her  she  called  to  him,  “  Do  not 
come  up  the  tree  for  your  moose,”  meaning  himself.  “The  tree  leans  over 
the  river  and  your  moose  will  fall  in  the  river  and  be  lost  if  you  kill  me 
here.  Wait,  and  I  will  come  down  and  then  you  can  kill  me.”  Agreeing 
to  this,  he  went  a  little  way  from  the  tree  while  the  woman  came  down. 

She  started  to  run  and  cross  the  point  around  which  the  river  made  a 
long  bend.  The  mosquito  jumped  into  his  canoe  and  paddled  around  the 
point.  When  the  woman  saw  him  coming  she  climbed  another  tree  which 
leaned  over  the  river.  He  was  about  to  pass  under  the  tree  when  the 
woman  let  fall  some  urine  on  him.  He  wondered  where  water  could  be 
coming  from  for  the  sun  was  shining.  Looking  up  he  said,  “  Oh,  my  moose 
is  sitting  on  the  tree.”  He  started  to  climb  the  tree  after  her,  holding  his 
spear  in  his  hand.  When  he  was  close  the  woman  told  him  to  give  her  his 
spear  while  he  climbed  up.  “  I  will  give  it  back  to  you  when  you  get  up 
here  and  you  may  stab  me  with  it,”  she  said.  He  gave  her  the  spear  and 
she  went  further  up  the  tree  with  it.  When  he  came  up  close  to  her  she 
speared  him  on  the  crown  of  his  head.  The  man  fell  down.  Holding  the 
spear  up  as  it  was  still  sticking  in  his  head  he  started  home,  crying,  “  The 
moose  is  killing  me;  the  moose  is  killing  me.” 

He  came  back  to  the  camp  still  holding  the  spear  which  he  was  unable  to 
pull  out.  When  he  came  near  the  camp  the  mosquitoes  all  ran  out  saying, 
“Oh,  the  moose  killed  a  man.”  When  they  had  tried  in  vain  to  get  the 
spear  out  they  sent  for  a  smart  man  to  see  if  he  could  do  it.  This  man 
advised  driving  the  spear  down  through  as  the  easiest  way  to  remove  it. 
They  did  this,  driving  the  spear  down  through  so  it  came  out  under  his  chin. 
The  man  died. 

The  mosquitoes  then  decided  to  follow  the  woman’s  track  since  she 
could  not  be  far  from  the  camp.  When  the  mosquitoes  were  near  the  camp 
of  the  people  a  medicineman  advised  that  mooseskins  should  be  hung  all 
around  where  the  mosquitoes  were  camped,  so  that  the  larger  ones  at  least 
would  not  be  able  to  come  through.  They  did  this  and  only  the  small 
mosquitoes,  those  of  the  present  size,  were  able  to  come  through  the  holes 
in  the  skins.  All  the  big  ones  were  killed  with  the  aid  of  the  medicineman. 


The  Shiftless  Husband. 

A  man  who  was  camping  by  himself  ran  out  of  food  and  went  with  his 
wife  to  a  lake  to  get  some  fish.  He  went  out  on  the  lake  and  sat  by  his  hook 


266 


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but  came  home  at  night  without  any  fish.  His  wife  wondered  what  was  the 
matter,  for  fish  had  always  been  taken  in  that  lake.  She  told  her  husband 
that  she  herself  would  go  fishing  the  next  day.  Her  husband  assented  to 
this.  The  woman  got  some  fish  very  quickly.  She  found  her  husband  had 
not  even  cut  a  hole  entirely  through  the  ice,  and  that  was  why  he  had  not 
taken  any  fish.  The  woman  got  a  good  many. 

The  man  himself  had  gone  to  set  snares  for  rabbits  but  came  home  with¬ 
out  any.  The  wife  wondered  why  he  hadn’t  caught  any,  for  rabbits  were 
plentiful.  “  I  will  go  to  look  after  your  snares  tomorrow,”  she  told  him. 
“  All  right,”  he  said,  “you  look  after  my  snares.”  She  found  he  had  merely 
cleared  away  the  snow  on  the  top  of  the  mountain  and  sat  there  all  day. 
He  had  set  two  of  the  snares  and  thrown  the  remainder  down  in  the  snow. 
She  gathered  them  up  and  set  them.  She  caught  many  rabbits  which  she 
took  home  with  her.  The  man  had  spent  the  day  fishing  but  had  not  caught 
any  fish,  for  he  had  not  gotten  the  hook  into  the  water. 

Now  the  woman  suspected  what  sort  he  was.  If  it  had  not  been  for 
his  wife  he  would  have  starved.  They  lived  through  the  winter  because  of 
the  woman’s  effort.  He  was  not  a  manlike  fellow  and  had  concluded  he 
could  not  live  anyway.1 


A  Young  Man  Carries  about  Fire  all  Winter.2 

There  was  a  young  man  who  went  around  alone  one  winter.  He  had 
neglected  to  provide  himself  with  the  proper  stones  for  making  fire  before 
the  snow  came  and  covered  them  up.  He  was  therefore  obliged  to  carry 
fire  with  him  wherever  he  went.  He  was  without  food  and  starving  one 
night  when  he  killed  a  partridge.  He  scraped  away  the  snow,  built  a  fire, 
and  cooked  the  partridge.  He  ate  the  bird  and  when  he  had  finished 
dropped  the  feet  in  the  snow  behind  him. 

The  next  day  he  went  on  and  wandered  about  for  many  days  without 
being  able  to  kill  anything.  Finally,  he  came  back  to  the  same  place  and 
cleared  away  the  snow  for  a  fire.  As  the  fire  melted  the  snow  away  he  saw 
the  discarded  partridge  feet.  He  then  recognized  his  former  camping 
place.  He  picked  up  the  feet  and  ate  them.  That  night  a  partridge  came 
to  him  in  his  sleep  and  said,  “You  were  proud.  You  were  too  proud  to  eat 
my  feet  as  other  people  do,  but  now  you  want  to  have  them.  You  are 
miserable  and  about  to  die,  but  from  now  on  you  will  be  all  right.  By 


1  When  the  point  of  the  story  was  asked  for,  the  informant  said  this  man  was  the  first  of 
such  men.  Because  he  was  a  shiftless  man  we  still  have  them. 

2  Obtained  in  English  from  Ike  through  John  Bourassa. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


207 


tomorrow  night  you  will  have  plenty  to  eat.  The  next  day  he  went  about 
•thinking  all  day  long  he  would  find  some  game  as  had  been  promised. 
Night  came  without  his  having  had  a  chance  to  kill  anything.  He  moved 
the  snow  away  and  built  his  fire  against  a  drift  that  the  heat  might  be 
reflected  toward  him.  He  sat  there  wondering  that  an  animal  should  de¬ 
ceive  him  by  making  a  promise  that  had  not  been  fulfilled.  As  the  fire 
grew  hot  he  heard  a  sound  like  the  frying  of  grease.  He  kept  pushing  the 
fire  together  and  as  he  did  so  the  sound  was  heard  again.  He  finally  noticed 
the  drift  of  snow  covered  a  moose  which  had  been  killed  in  the  fall  when  it 
was  fat.  The  fire  had  been  built  near  the  hips  of  the  moose  and  the  choicest 
parts  were  ready  cooked.  He  had  the  whole  moose  to  himself  and  was  all 
right  after  that. 


A  Man  Overcomes  Obstacles  in  Rescuing  iiis  Sisters.1 

A  man  who  had  just  come  home  was  scolded  by  his  wife  and  went  out 
again.  The  wife  thought  that  he  had  gone  out  without  any  particular 
intention,  but  asked  her  son  to  look  for  his  father.  The  boy  wondered  what 
was  the  matter  and  replied  that  his  father  was  still  standing  there. 

The  man  had  run  off.  The  woman  looked  after  him  and  then  set  out  to 
follow  him.  He  had  just  come  back  from  killing  a  caribou  and  he  took  along 
the  head,  dragging  it  behind  him.  His  wife  followed  the  mark  left  by  the 
dragged  head  and  by  the  bones  which  lay  along  the  way.  After  a  time  she 
turned  back,  but  the  man  kept  on.  Finally,  he  came  to  the  trail  of  some 
strange  people  and  followed  it  until  he  overtook  them.  He  thought  they 
were  people  but  they  were  really  partridges.  They  gave  him  some  of  their 
food.  He  went  on  again  and  found  another  trail  which  he  followed.  They 
were  porcupines  this  time.  They  gave  him  some  of  their  food,  pitch,  which 
seemed  to  him  to  be  meat. 

This  man’s  two  sisters  had  been  taken  by  a  people  who  lived  at  a  great 
distance  and  he  was  going  to  get  them  back.  After  a  time  he  saw  their 
trail  and  followed  it  until  he  overtook  them.  He  found  they  were  both 
married  to  the  same  man.  When  he  told  his  sisters  that  he  had  come  for 
them,  they  told  him  their  husband  was  such  a  powerful  man  it  was  no  use, 
he  could  do  nothing  to  help  them.  The  young  man  declared  that  having 
come  so  far  for  them  he  would  not  go  back  without  them. 

His  brother-in-law  had  killed  a  moose  and  told  his  wives  to  bring  the 
meat  before  it  spoiled.  “This  is  our  chance,”  the  young  man  said,  “now 


1  Dr.  Lowie  has  this  story  but  with  many  differences,  pp.  193^4,  above. 


268 


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we  will  start  back.”  They  traveled  toward  their  homes  day  and  night 
without  stopping  to  sleep.  Finally  sleep  was  overpowering  them  and  they 
lay  down.  When  they  got  up  in  the  morning  their  way  was  barred  by  a 
sheer  cliff  no  man  could  climb.  The  girls  began  to  cry  but  their  brother 
said  they  would  lie  down  and  sleep  again.  When  they  got  up  the  next  time 
the  cliff  had  disappeared. 

They  went  on  again  toward  their  homes  until  sleep  again  forced  them 
to  lie  down.  When  they  awoke,  a  lake  which  they  could  not  cross  lay  in 
front  of  them.  The  brother  told  them  to  lie  down  again.  When  they  got 
up  the  next  time  a  narrow  neck  of  land  ran  across  the  lake  on  which  they 
were  able  to  pass  to  the  other  side. 

When  they  came  back  to  their  home  they  found  their  father  so  old  he 
could  not  get  up.  The  man’s  wife  had  been  in  the  prime  of  life  when  he 
left  and  now  her  hair  was  white.  The  man  who  had  made  the  journey  was  a 
young  man  when  he  set  out.  It  had  been  a  long  time  since  he  left  but  it 
did  not  seem  so  to  him.  He  thought  it  was  only  a  short  time  before.  That 
was  a  powerful  man  who  by  supernatural  power  made  a  long  journey, 
although  it  did  not  seem  long  to  him. 


A  Stolen  Wife  is  Recovered  from  beyond  the  Sea.1 

A  man  left  a  large  camp  in  which  he  had  many  brothers  and  camped 
alone  with  his  wife.  As  they  moved  about  they  came  to  a  large  lake  that 
one  could  not  see  across  and  camped  by  it.  One  day  while  he  was  away, 
hunting,  someone  stole  his  wife.  He  could  see  where  she  had  been  taken 
along,  for  as  she  resisted  being  pulled  along  she  pulled  out  herbs  and  tore 
off  brush  which  she  dropped  by  the  way.  The  husband  followed  until  he 
came  to  a  place  where  he  could  see  across  the  sea.  When  the  man  who  had 
captured  the  women  came  there  with  her  she  had  asked  him  to  shoot  some 
partridges  which  were  in  sight  for  her.  The  man  shot  them  and  gave  them 
to  her.  They  got  into  the  canoe  to  cross  the  sea  on  the  further  shore  of 
which  the  man  lived.  The  canoe  was  still  in  sight  when  the  husband  came 
to  the  shore.  He  called  to  him,  “  Agia,  my  partner,  bring  my  wife  back.” 
The  man  in  the  canoe  shot  several  arrows  at  the  husband  saying,  “These 
are  all  you  will  get.”  They  went  on  until  they  were  out  of  sight.  The 
husband  resolved  to  do  something  about  it;  he  was  not  going  to  lose  his 
wife  without  an  effort  to  recover  her. 


1  Obtained  in  English  from  Ike  through  John  Bourassa. 


1916.] 


Goddard ,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


269 


He  had  with  him  some  beaver  teeth  which  he  always  carried,  for  accord¬ 
ing  to  his  dream,  he  could  do  anything  he  wished  with  them.  He  put  them 
by  the  water’s  edge  and  said,  “  I  want  these  to  turn  into  a  good  canoe 
tonight.”  Then  he  went  back  to  the  large  camp  where  his  brothers-in-law 
were  and  told  them  someone  had  stolen  his  wife.  He  asked  them  to  go 
with  him  and  help  him  fight  to  get  her  back.  They  went  with  him  and 
when  they  came  to  the  shore  of  the  lake  a  fine  canoe  was  floating  there, 
where  he  had  left  the  beaver  teeth.  They  paddled  out  on  the  lake  in  it. 
The  woman  knowing  her  husband  would  come  after  her,  had  strewed  the 
partridge  feathers  along  the  way  they  had  gone.  Where  they  stopped  for 
the  night  she  put  the  wing  feathers.  This  she  did  until  they  were  across. 
The  men  who  were  coming  behind  them  followed  the  trail  of  the  feathers 
stopping  for  the  night  where  the  long  feathers  were  found.  When  they 
came  near  the  shore  they  saw  many  canoes  drawn  up  on  the  beach.  There 
was  no  camp  there,  only  a  small  shelter  of  poles  from  which  smoke  was 
coming  out.  The  pursuers  went  in  and  found  an  old  man  there  and  an  old 
woman.  There  were  fish  hanging  there  which  the  hosts  roasted  for  their 
guests.  After  they  had  eaten  they  asked  the  old  woman  if  a  stranger  had 
brought  a  woman  there.  “Oh  yes,”  the  old  woman  replied,  “a  man  named 
‘  Rabbit-tail  ’  (gatce)  brought  a  fine  woman  from  the  other  side  of  the  lake. 
This  morning  the  camp  was  moved  a  little  way  over  where  there  is  plenty 
of  wood.”  Hoping  to  deceive  the  old  woman  who  did  not  know  them,  they 
asked  if  this  man’s  tipi  was  different  in  any  way  from  the  others.  “Yes,” 
she  said,  “an  otterskin  is  always  hanging  at  the  top  of  it.  When  you  see 
that  you  will  know  it  is  his  tipi.”  Seeing  a  number  of  fine  spears  behind 
the  old  woman’s  lodge  they  asked  her  about  them.  She  replied  that  they 
belonged  to  Rabbit-tail  who  used  them  to  kill  people.  The  strangers  asked 
to  be  allowed  to  examine  them  and  the  old  woman  passed  them  over. 
Having  examined  them  they  killed  the  old  man  and  old  woman  with  them. 

They  went  to  the  new  camp  where  they  found  the  tipis  already  up  but 
the  women  were  still  cutting  wood.  The  husband  hid  near  his  wife  and 
called  her  to  him.  She  said  the  chief  would  be  hard  to  kill  for  he  had  horns 
on  his  head.  The  husband  said  they  would  remain  there  that  night.  He 
told  her  to  get  her  captor  to  sharpen  her  knife  which  was  dull.  When  they 
went  to  bed  she  was  advised  to  play  with  her  husband  for  a  long  time  so  that 
he  would  sleep  soundly.  Just  at  daybreak  they  would  rush  the  camp  and 
when  she  heard  them  coming  she  was  to  cut  the  man’s  throat  with  the  knife 
he  would  have  newly  sharpened  for  her.  Then  she  was  to  rush  out  before 
Rabbit-tail’s  mother,  a  medicine  woman,  sleeping  on  the  other  side  of  the 
fire,  could  do  anything.  Just  as  day  was  breaking  the  next  morning  they 
rushed  the  camp  and  the  stolen  wife  cut  the  man’s  throat  and  ran  out. 


270 


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The  old  woman  asked  what  dog  was  lapping  up  blood.  It  was  the  blood 
gurgling  from  her  son’s  throat  she  heard.  The  attacking  party  killed  the 
old  woman  and  everyone  else  in  the  camp,  using  the  spears  they  had  taken. 

The  man  started  back  with  his  wife.  When  they  came  to  the  lake  they 
broke  all  the  canoes  they  found  there  before  they  recrossed.1 


The  Treacherous  Wife. 

There  was  a  man  whose  tipi  stood  by  itself.  His  wife  was  carried  off  by 
the  Cree  during  his  absence.  He  looked  for  her  in  vain ;  it  seemed  she  was 
completely  lost.  His  brother-in-law  helped  him  look  for  her  for  a  time  and 
then  gave  it  up.  The  husband  started  out  alone  thinking  she  had  been  stolen 
by  people  from  a  distance.  He  finally  saw  his  wife  as  she  was  coming  for 
water.  “  You  are  still  alive,”  he  said  to  her.  “  I  am  in  distress  from  a  lack 
of  moccasins.”  The  woman  did  not  speak  to  him.  She  had  not  believed  he 
would  follow  her. 

He  sat  there  waiting  for  her  at  the  shore  end  of  a  sharp  point  of  land  that 
ran  out  into  the  lake.  The  woman  went  up  to  the  camp  and  reported  that 
there  was  a  stranger  sitting  down  below.  As  soon  as  she  said  it  the  men 
who  were  sitting  about  the  camp  rushed  down  after  him.  They  caught 
him  and  built  a  platform  on  which  they  put  him  with  a  big  fire  underneath 
to  roast  him  alive.  The  man  was  screaming  as  he  slowly  roasted. 

There  was  an  old  man  living  a  short  distance  away  all  of  whose  children, 
except  one  daughter,  had  been  killed.  He  heard  a  man  screaming  over  at 
the  camp  and  said  to  his  daughter,  “Go  and  see  what  my  son  is  saying.” 
The  girl  went  over  there  and  sure  enough  the  man  who  was  screaming  was 
just  like  her  older  brother  whom  they  believed  had  been  killed.  She  looked 
at  him  and  went  back  to  her  father  saying,  “Father,  the  one  who  is  making 
that  noise  is  just  like  my  brother.”  The  old  man  put  on  his  war  outfit  and 
went  over  there.  When  he  came  where  the  man  was  being  cooked  he  said 
to  them,  “What  is  this  you  are  doing?  You  are  cooking  a  man  that  looks 
like  my  son.”  They  took  him  down  from  the  platform  and  carried  him 
home  to  the  old  man’s  camp.  There  the  father  made  him  well  again  with  his 
supernatural  power. 

There  were  many  people  living  there  who  were  not  like  human  beings. 
They  had  killed  the  old  man’s  children.  The  old  man  did  not  hunt  and 


i  It  was  explained  that  since  the  horns  were  on  the  sides  of  the  man’s  head  he  had  to 
sleep  on  his  back  and  it  was  easy  to  cut  his  throat. 

They  crossed  the  lake  in  three  days  traveling  fast  with  supernatural  power. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


271 


they  did  that  for  that  reason,  and  because  they  were  too  many  for  him  to 
resist. 

At  another  time  they  agreed  to  have  a  footrace.  The  old  man  said  to 
the  young  man  who  had  been  roasted,  “  My  son  they  say  they  are  going  to 
have  a  footrace  tomorrow.  I  am  going  to  bet  your  sister  who  is  all  we  have.” 
He  was  planning  that  the  man’s  wife  should  be  killed.  The  old  man  sang, 
beating  the  tipi  poles.  As  he  was  drumming  on  them  a  live  bird  fell  out. 
He  took  this  bird,  fixed  it  properly,  and  placed  it  in  his  sack.  They  had  the 
footrace,  but  the  young  man  paid  no  attention  to  it.  The  father  joined  in 
the  race  having  the  eagle.  Because  he  was  old  and  not  strong  they  placed 
him  ahead.  The  old  man  ran  with  his  legs  behind  the  others.  The  young 
man  who  was  over  there  out  of  sight  went  into  the  bird  and  ran  after  them. 
Before  long  he  passed  the  others  and  ran  ahead  of  them.  He  came  back  to 
the  camp  first  of  all  and  took  down  the  meat.  The  woman  who  had  been 
his  wife  was  laughing  at  him.  Another  woman  asked  her  why  she  was 
laughing.  That  woman  had  many  relatives  among  the  people  from  whom 
she  had  come.  Then  the  man  who  had  married  the  woman  came  back  and 
was  looking  for  the  meat,  but  it  was  gone.  “Who  has  taken  it?”  he  asked. 
“The  man  over  there  took  it.  He  came  back  first.”  “There  was  no  one 
ahead  of  me  as  far  as  I  knew.  He  did  that  to  me  because  I  bet  you.  Go  to 
the  man  who  has  won  you,”  the  man  said.  He  sent  her  to  the  man  whose 
wife  she  had  been  before.  When  she  came  to  the  door  she  said,  “Let  us 
two  go  over  there  close  to  the  camp.”  The  man  did  not  say  anything  to 
her  but  to  his  father  said,  “  I  hate  her  mouth.  Do  anything  you  please 
with  her.”  His  father  killed  her. 


A  Woman  x\grees  to  Betray  her  Sons  to  the  Cree.1 

There  was  a  woman  whose  husband  died  leaving  her  with  three  small 
boys.  She  supported  herself  and  her  sons  by  killing  rabbits  and  other 
small  game.  When  the  boys  were  grown  up  and  were  away  one  day  hunt¬ 
ing,  a  band  of  Cree  came  to  their  camp.  They  told  the  woman  that  they 
were  coming  the  next  morning  to  kill  her  sons.  They  were  going  to  kill 
her  right  then  unless  she  promised  not  to  tell  the  sons.  If  she  did  not  tell 
them  they  would  let  her  live  and  she  might  have  her  choice  of  the  whole 
band  for  a  husband.  She  promised  on  this  condition. 

The  sons  came  home  late  and  went  to  bed.  The  youngest  woke  up  early 
in  the  morning  and  saw  his  mother  looking  through  a  hole  in  the  tipi.  She 


1  Secured  in  English  from  Ike  through  John  Bourassa. 


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was  saying  to  herself,  “I  wish  day  would  come  quickly  so  I  may  have  a 
husband  and  be  rid  of  these  boys.”  When  the  son  heard  this  he  pushed  a 
stick  through  a  birchbark  dish,  lighted  it  in  the  fire  for  a  torch,  and  ran 
outside.  There  he  found  the  strangers’  tracks.  When  he  told  his  brothers 
what  he  had  heard  and  seen  they  agreed  that  they  had  better  go  to  the 
larger  camp.  As  they  went  out  the  door  one  of  them  shot  the  mother  in 
the  throat  saying,  “You  will  not  have  a  husband.”  When  the  Cree  came 
they  found  the  woman  dead. 


A  Man  Avenges  his  Son-in-law. 

A  party  of  Indians  went  on  a  war  expedition.  The  strange  people  for 
whom  they  went  were  not  found,  and  the  party  turned  back.  When  they 
came  out  on  a  lake  there  was  a  black  spot  in  the  distance.  They  thought 
wolves  might  have  killed  a  caribou,  and  ran  to  it  saying  they  would  eat  the 
marrow.  One  man  outran  the  others  and  came  to  it.  It  was  a  man’s 
head.  The  Cree  had  killed  a  man,  one  of  their  friends.  They  went  up  to 
the  shore  to  a  camp  where  many  people  were  sitting.  One  of  them  was  the 
chief  who  had  a  son-in-law  living  there.  They  counted  the  people  and 
found  the  son-in-law  was  missing.  “  He  has  run  away.  He  had  no  mocca¬ 
sins  with  him  and  has  frozen  to  death  somewhere.  Look  around  the  edge 
of  the  camp,”  his  father-in-law  said.  They  found  he  had  left  the  camp  at  a 
certain  point  and  they  followed  after  him.  They  found  his  body  lying  not 
very  far  away.  His  father-in-law  just  looked  at  him  and  since  there  was 
nothing  he  could  do  he  left  him. 

They  followed  those  Cree  and  came  up  to  them  where  they  had  returned 
to  their  tipis  which  were  grouped  in  two  camps.  There  were  many  tipis. 
The  father-in-law,  indicating  the  place  where  the  tipis  were  most  numerous, 
said  he  would  go  there  alone.  He  went  there  by  himself  and  killed  them  all; 
not  one  was  left  alive.  Then  he  cried.  Because  he  was  angry  the  entire 
party  went  to  the  other  camp  and  killed  them  all. 

They  went  home  and  came  down  to  the  lake  again.  The  Cree  were  there 
again.  That  too  was  a  war  party.  They  were  sitting  there  by  their  hooks 
and  did  not  know  anyone  was  about.  One  of  them  was  not  getting  any  fish. 
“  I  wonder  what  is  the  matter?”  he  said  to  himself.  “I  guess  it  is  because 
the  water  is  too  shallow.  I  will  make  a  hole  in  the  ice  further  out.”  He 
went  out  to  another  place  where  a  man  was  sitting  by  his  hook.  The 
Beaver  coming  up  to  him  thought  it  was  one  of  his  own  people,  but  it  was 
really  a  Cree.  It  was  snowing  hard  when  he  came  up  to  him.  “My 
brother-in-law  you  will  soon  kill  fish,”  he  said  to  him.  There  was  a  spear 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


273 


lying  beside  the  Cree  who  took  it  up,  thinking  it  was  not  a  relative.  He  too 
had  been  carrying  an  ice  chisel  and  killed  the  Cree  with  it.  He  ran  away 
without  telling  his  relatives  who  were  all  killed  by  the  Cree.  He  was  the 
only  one  to  escape  to  his  home  alive. 


An  Old  Man  Escapes  a  Plot  only  to  be  Killed  in  Revenge. 

There  was  one  old  man  who  camped  by  himself,  living  on  rabbits  which 
he  was  taking  in  snares.  He  had  a  wife  who  was  a  young  girl.  A  young 
man  who  was  living  with  some  strange  Indians  was  out  hunting  and  came 
to  the  woman.  He  told  her  that  he  would  kill  the  old  man  when  he  was 
out  looking  after  his  snares.  “  If  I  kill  him  I  will  marry  you,”  he  told  her. 
When  the  old  man  went  out  to  look  after  his  snares  the  young  man  went  in 
the  same  direction.  He  watched  for  him  behind  some  willows  which  were 
covered  with  snow.  A  rabbit  had  been  snared  and  was  hanging  high  up 
on  the  spring  pole.  When  the  old  man  stretched  up  to  pull  it  down  with  a 
wooden  hook  he  carried,  the  young  man  shot  him.  The  old  man  jumped 
up  and  the  arrow  went  under  him.  The  old  man  jumped  after  the  young 
man  who  tried  in  vain  to  run  away.  He  caught  him  and  killed  him. 

Because  the  young  man  had  many  relatives  the  old  man  ran  off.  He 
came  to  some  people  who  were  living  far  a-way  whom  he  did  not  know.  They 
were  the  relatives  of  the  young  man  he  had  killed.  He  was  telling  them  his 
experiences  when  they  broke  in  on  him  saying,  “You  are’ telling  us  about 
our  youngest  brother  whom  you  have  killed.  We  were  wondering  who 
killed  him  and  it  turns  out  to  be  you.”  They  killed  the  old  man,  although 
he  was  very  pitiful. 


A  Man  Wins  his  Faithless  Wives  by  Wrestling. 

There  was  an  old  man  who  was  highly  respected  and  the  chief  of  his 
band.  He  had  two  wives.  They  were  starving,  for  although  he  was  trying 
to  secure  beaver  he  did  not  succeed  in  killing  any.  He  thought  the  women 
were  starving  but  wondered  at  the  way  they  were  treating  him.  Occasion¬ 
ally  he  killed  a  small  beaver.  He  would  give  it  to  the  women  and  ask  them 
to  cook  it  for  him.  “  Take  it  up  away  from  the  water,”  he  would  tell  them. 
They  would  leave  only  the  shoulder  of  the  beaver  for  him.  The  old  man 
ate  only  that.  “  I  think  they  are  trying  to  starve  me,”  he  said  to  himself. 
Wondering  what  they  were  planning  to  do,  he  went  to  bed.  In  the  morning 
the  two  women  got  up.  “Get  up,”  they  told  the  old  man,  “what  is  the 


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matter?  You  never  acted  this  way  before.”  The  two  women  went  off  and 
left  him. '  The  old  man  pretended  he  was  trying  hard  to  get  up.  “  They  are 
alive  all  right  I  guess  but  mean,”  he  said  to  himself. 

He  remained  there  all  winter  alone.  When  the  snow  was  all  melted  he 
started  off  in  the  direction  the  women  had  gone.  They  had  both  married 
the  same  man.  The  man  they  had  married  was  also  a  strong  man.  “  I  will 
go  and  see  my  wives’  other  husband,”  the  old  man  said. 

His  rival  was  not  far  away.  He  came  to  him  and  they  began  to  wrestle. 
The  man  who  had  taken  the  women  away  was  thrown  down  for  the  other 
man  was  the  stronger.  They  say  the  first  man  was  called,  “Strong  Man.” 
The  other  one  was  strong.  He  left  the  man  saying,  “You  wanted  them; 
marry  them.”  He  went  off  and  began  to  chisel  for  beaver  with  a  moose 
horn.  This  happened  before  there  were  any  white  people. 


The  Rival  Husbands. 

Once  there  was  a  man  who,  although  poor  was  strong.  There  was  a 
married  man,  camped  by  himself  who  was  not  so  strong.  Having  lost  his 
wife  to  the  stronger  man,  he  said  to  himself,  “  Why  is  it  he  does  not  kill 
anything?  They  will  kill  my  children.”  He  continued  living  with  them 
in  the  same  camp.  The  man  who  had  taken  the  wife  away  hunted  a  good 
deal  but  did  not  kill  anything.  Although  the  children  were  about  to  die  of 
starvation  he  paid  no  attention  to  them.  The  other  man  who  had  always 
been  poor  hunted  but  did  not  kill  anything.  Finally,  the  grandmother  of 
the  children  said  to  her  son-in-iaw,  “  It  seems  as  if  your  children  will  starve. 
Why  do  you  not  do  something  about  it?  ”  “Well,  get  my  arrows  out,”  he 
replied  to  his  mother-in-law. 

He  hunted  along  one  side  of  the  road  until  he  came  to  a  band  of  caribou. 
He  killed  them  all  and  carried  a  large  quantity  of  the  meat  back  with  him 
for  the  children.  The  poor  man  who  shared  the  camp  with  him  had  said 
he  would  move  the  camp  to  a  considerable  distance.  The  father  went  back 
to  the  road  which  he  followed.  He  had  already  passed  the  new  camp. 
They  had  not  gone  further  than  he  had  in  hunting.  Suddenly,  he  saw  the 
tent  standing  in  front  of  him.  He  put  the  load  down  outside  and  went  in 
without  it.  “  Mother-in-law,  you  will  find  some  partridge  dung  over  there 
from  which  you  can  make  some  soup  for  the  children,”  he  said.  “  I  brought 
it  for  that  purpose;  bring  it  inside.”  His  partner  spoke  up,  “I  saw  it  lying 
there  and  left  it.  Do  not  get  it,  for  my  children  will  choke  on  it.”  The  old 
woman  brought  the  load  in,  and  when  the  other  man  saw  it  was  meat  he 
was  much  pleased.  They  went  for  the  remainder  of  the  meat. 


1916.] 


Goddard ,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


275 


The  other  man  went  away  hunting  the  next  morning  and  came  home  in  the 
evening.  His  leggings  were  covered  with  frozen  blood.  He  did  not  bring 
back  meat  but  said  they  would  go  for  it  in  the  morning.  When  they  came 
where  he  claimed  to  have  killed  the  animals  it  was  apparent  the  caribou  had 
run  away  from  him.  The  blood  on  his  leggings  was  from  his  nose.  He  had 
broken  pine  brush  and  covered  it  with  snow  thinking  it  would  be  mistaken 
for  caribou  carcasses.  “What  is  the  matter;  it  is  nothing  but  pine  brush. 
He  said  it  was  caribou  meat,”  the  father  of  the  children  said  when  he  saw  it. 

They  went  back  and  the  man  who  had  taken  the  wife  away  gave  her 
back,  for  he  concluded  he  was  not  capable  enough  around  the  camp  to  have 
the  responsibility  of  a  wife.  They  say  he  was  that  kind  of  a  man. 

This  happened  when  they  were  wearing  breechcloths  of  skin. 


A  Young  Man  Tries  to  Escape  the  Responsibility  of  Parenthood. 

The  people  were  very  hungry.  It  seemed  as  if  they  would  not  live. 
They  had  made  a  cache  and  were  going  to  that.  When  they  were  not  yet 
in  sight  of  it,  the  son  of  an  old  man  suggested  they  camp  about  alone.  “  We 
cannot  do  that,”  his  father  said,  “we  shall  die.”  The  young  man  insisted 
that  they  camp  by  themselves.  “Are  you  able  to  keep  the  fire  pushed 
together  if  we  do  as  you  say?  ’  the  father  asked  his  son.  “Yes,  I  will  keep 
the  fire  pushed  together,”  the  son  promised.  “Well,  start  off  in  the  direc¬ 
tion  you  want  to  go,”  the  father  said.  The  young  man  started  off  and  left 
a  big  pile  of  wood  as  a  sign  of  the  place  where  they  were  to  camp.  “Why 
do  not  you  look  after  things?  You  said  you  would  keep  the  fire  pushed 
together.  What  is  the  matter?”  his  father  said.  “You  said  you  would 
push  the  fire  together.  You  do  not  act  like  a  man.  My  children  would 
be  fed  at  the  cache  and  now,  because  you  talked  that  wTay,  I  fear  they  will 
die,”  the  old  man  said.  The  young  man  took  the  snares  and  set  two  for 
moose.  Before  long  the  snares  made  a  noise  and  two  moose  had  been 
caught.  The  old  man  moved  the  camp  to  them.  “Father,  I  am  going 
ahead  where  the  other  people  are,”  the  young  man  said.  “Do  not  go,” 
his  father  said,  but  the  boy  insisted  he  would  go  there. 

He  started  off  and  came  where  the  other  people  were.  They  scolded 
him  because  of  a  woman.  Soon  after  that  he  went  back  to  his  father’s 
camp.  The  old  man  was  on  ahead.  A  woman  had  given  birth  to  a  child 
of  which  he  was  the  father.  “  My  grandchild,”  the  woman  said,  “  I  wonder 
whose  it  is?”  “I  guess  it  is  that  young  man’s  child,”  someone  said.  The 
old  man’s  wife  asked  if  it  was  a  boy.  “Yes,  it  is  a  boy,”  they  told  her. 
“  Go  after  him  quickly,”  the  old  woman  said.  “  I  will  raise  it.  I  have  one 
child  and  this  one  will  be  his  partner  and  they  will  hunt  together.” 


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Torturing  the  Enemy. 

A  man  was  walking  by  himself.  A  Cree,  too,  was  walking  from  the 
opposite  direction.  When  they  met  they  sat  down  by  each  other  and  the 
Cree  said,  “Brother-in-law,  how  far  away  is  your  camp?  My  camp  is 
close  by.”  “My  camp  is  a  long  distance  away,”  the  Beaver  replied. 
“While  you  are  waiting  for  me,  break  open  this  beaver  house.  We  will 
come  to  you  tomorrow  morning,”  the  Cree  said.  While  the  Beaver  was 
waiting  for  him  he  made  a  fence  and  beat  down  the  snow,  making  a  trail. 
Then  while  he  was  making  the  fence  several  Cree  came  there. 

The  old  man,  the  Beaver,  was  sitting  by  the  others  cutting  a  pole  in  two. 
He  tried  in  vain.  “Brother-in-law,  break  it  for  me,”  he  said.  Just  as 
soon  as  he  broke  it  he  stabbed  him  and  killed  him.  Among  those  who  were 
coming  up  was  the  father  of  the  young  man  who  was  stabbed.  As  soon  as 
he  heard  his  son  scream  they  all  began  to  rush  forward.  As  they  were 
rushing  along  the  Beaver  shot  them  with  arrows.  He  killed  them  all  not 
leaving  a  single  one  alive.  The  mother  of  the  Cree  was  coming  along.  “  I 
killed  your  sons  here,”  he  said.  “You  are  not  coming  here  for  nothing.” 
He  made  a  slave  of  her  causing  her  to  suffer  terribly.  He  used  to  burn  her 
skin.  He  killed  that  old  woman  too.  Afterward  he  took  [as  slaves]  those 
who  had  lived  with  them. 

The  old  man  asked  if  they  knew  of  any  people  living  close  by.  He  was 
told  there  were  two  old  blind  men  who  had  enough  young  men  to  make  a 
war  party.  “We  will  go  after  them,”  the  old  man  said.  When  they  came 
there  they  saw  the  winter  trail  in  the  snow.  “Wait  for  me  here  and  be 
making  camp  while  I  go  there,”  the  leader  said. 

He  went  to  the  two  blind  Cree  men,  took  them  by  the  hair  and  burned 
their  faces  in  the  fire.  “  I  shall  stay  here  in  this  condition  until  my  young 
men  get  back,”  one  of  the  old  men  said.  The  other  old  man  said  the  same 
thing,  “I,  too,  shall  remain  in  the  same  condition.”  Then  one  of  the 
young  men  was  coming  home  and  the  Beaver  man  ran  after  him  and  killed 
him.  He  really  killed  them  all.  There  were  very  many  men  but  he  himself 
alone  killed  them  all.  They  say  that  Beaver  was  a  powerful  man. 


Two  Brothers  Escape  the  Enemy  by  Flight. 

Once  there  were  two  brothers  who  were  camping  together.  They  were 
not  having  good  dreams.  “We  better  not  do  as  we  are  doing,”  one  of  them 
said.  “We  are  doing  all  right  here,”  the  other  replied.  “We  will  roast 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


277 


the  beaver  and  eat  it,  and  remain  here  until  the  snow  melts.”  The  older 
brother  looked  around  and  then  said  to  his  younger  brother,  “You  say  we 
are  in  a  good  place.  What  is  that  over  there?”  He  looked  and  saw  there 
were  Cree  in  the  direction  they  were  going.  “  What  shall  we  do?  ”  asked  the 
older  brother.  “I  will  carry  the  beaver,”  he  said.  “We  will  run  away,” 
said  the  older  one.  “Never  mind  the  beaver,  throw  it  away,”  the  younger 
one  said.  “Well,  if  we  get  out  of  this  alive  it  will  be  hard  for  us  to  get  along 
without  meat.  I  will  carry  it  over  there,”  the  older  brother  said. 

They  ran  off  and  the  Cree  chased  them.  They  could  not  get  away  from 
the  Cree  who  came  up  to  them  and  were  about  to  kill  them.  The  younger 
brother  was  usually  able  to  run  very  fast  but  he  could  not  run  like  that  now. 
“  He  will  be  killed;  he  is  clumsy  with  fright,”  the  older  brother  said  to  him¬ 
self.  His  legs  were  pounding  together  with  fear.  Then  he  ran  like  a  moose 
and  got  some  distance  from  the  Cree.  “You  carry  this  beaver,”  the  older 
brother  said.  “Never  mind  it,  we  will  throw  it  away,”  the  younger  brother 
replied.  “  Do  not  do  that.  Carry  it,”  he  insisted.  Then  he  consented  to 
carry  it  and  they  ran  away  from  the  Cree  nevertheless. 

After  they  had  been  running  three  nights  they  made  a  camp  and  slept. 
They  roasted  the  beaver  and  ate  it.  After  that  they  lived  happily  again. 
They  were  very  tired  but  after  they  had  eaten  they  were  all  right  again. 


A  Man  and  his  Wife  are  Saved  by  Lightning. 

Some  people  came  by  who  were  not  known.  They  took  a  fancy  to  a 
young  married  man  and  invited  him  to  accompany  them.  He  refused 
emphatically  but  when  they  insisted  he  went  away  with  them.  They  were 
people  who  lived  a  long  way  off  and  he  went  with  them  a  great  distance  to 
their  country. 

When  they  got  there  the  young  man  began  to  starve.  There  was  nothing 
he  could  do.  He  became  weak.  There  was  no  meat  and  they  gave  him 
nothing  to  eat.  He  got  so  weak  he  walked  with  difficulty.  “  Well,  never 
mind,”  they  said,  “he  will  die.  We  will  cross  the  large  lake.  The  wind 
is  very  strong  and  cold  against  a  man’s  face.  Let  the  cold  kill  him.”  “  We 
will  take  his  wife,”  they  were  saying  to  themselves.  “Do  not  stay  here,” 
they  told  her,  “  Go  away.  Do  not  wait  for  him.  If  you  wait  for  him,  you 
too  will  die.”  They  gave  the  man  a  piece  of  wood  about  four  inches  long. 
He  did  not  take  it  but  gave  it  to  his  wife.  “  If  something  happens  suddenly 
do  not  let  go  of  it,”  he  said  to  her.  The  woman  moved  her  tipi. 

The  people  could  still  be  seen  on  the  lake  when  the  lightning  struck 
among  them.  Not  a  flake  of  snow  was  left.  There  were  many  of  the  people 


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and  of  them  not  one  dark  spot  was  left.  The  lightning  had  killed  them  all. 
There  was  just  one  dark  speck  out  on  the  ice.  The  young  man  hurried  out 
to  see  what  it  was.  It  was  his  wife  and  she  was  breathing  a  little.  He  took 
her  back  to  his  camp.  There  seemed  to  be  no  hope  of  their  living,  for  their 
country  was  far  away.  “  Although  things  are  as  they  are,  we  will  start  back 
and  go  as  far  as  we  can  before  we  die,”  he  said.  They  started  back  with 
nothing  but  their  bare  hands.  With  nothing  to  live  on  they  were  helpless. 
They  were  beginning  to  die  of  starvation  when  they  suddenly  came  to  an 
old  beaver  house.  “  I  will  set  a  net  in  the  water  for  beaver,”  he  said  to 
himself.  “Make  a  fire  and  wait  some  place  nearby  for  me,”  he  told  his 
wife.  He  caught  two  beaver.  They  started  back  and  traveled  far  with  this 
food  they  had  secured.  When  the  beaver  meat  was  gone  and  they  were 
starving  again  they  came  where  a  large  bear  was  lying.  With  that  for  food 
they  came  back  until  they  reached  their  own  land  where  there  were  small 
birds  which  served  for  food  until  they  got  back  home.  It  was  hard  for  them 
but  they  lived  through  it.  Those  people  were  like  human  beings  but  their 
only  food  was  the  flesh  of  foxes.1  The  others  were  not  accustomed  to  foxes 
and  the  flesh  was  tough  for  them. 


A  Beaver  Kills  an  Entire  Band  of  Cree.2 

There  was  a  large  camp  of  Indians  at  Hay  Lake  where  they  were  spend¬ 
ing  the  winter  living  on  fish.  A  young  married  man,  not  caring  for  fish, 
was  camping  by  himself  at  some  distance,  living  on  rabbit.  Fearing  an 
attack,  he  took  the  precaution  of  keeping  a  trail  broken  between  his  camp 
and  the  large  camp  on  the  lake.  He  did  this  by  going  over  it  with  his  snow- 
shoes  once  a  month. 

One  morning  while  he  was  visiting  his  snares  as  usual  his  wife  was  sitting 
in  the  tipi  lacing  a  pair  of  snowshoes.  Her  little  boy  who  was  just  beginning 
to  talk  was  playing  beside  her.  The  child  looked  into  the  dish  of  water  in 
which  the  hide  for  lacing  the  snowshoes  was  being  dampened,  and  said  to 
the  mother,  “  Whose  face  is  that  in  the  water?  ”  The  mother  looked  in  the 
vessel  and  saw  the  reflection  of  the  face  of  an  enemy  looking  in  over  the 
door.  Feeling  sure  there  would  be  no  attack  in  the  daytime,  the  woman 
made  no  sign  and  went  on  rapidly  with  her  work.  The  spy  withdrew. 

When  her  husband  came  home  she  asked  him  why  he  had  peeked  in 


1  The  informant  said  a  tribe  known  as  “Fox-eaters ”  used  to  live  toward  the  south.  The 
distance  is  indicated  by  the  amount  of  food  consumed  by  them,  which  the  informant  thought 
ought  to  have  been  sufficient  for  a  very  long  journey. 

2  Obtained  in  English  from  Ike  through  John  Bourassa. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


279 


over  the  door.  Is  not  this  your  own  tipi?”  she  asked  him.  The  husband 
asked  her  if  she  was  sure  someone  had  done  that.  “Yes,”  she  said,  “even 
the  child  noticed  him.  His  track  must  be  outside.”  “I  have  been  expect¬ 
ing  this,”  the  man  replied.  “  That  is  why  I  kept  the  trail  to  the  large  camp 
open.  That  is  why  I  made  the  snowshoes,  I  wanted  them  to  fight  with. 
Hurry  and  finish  lacing  them  by  night,  if  you  can.  When  it  is  dark  so  they 
cannot  see  you,  you  must  take  the  child  and  go  to  the  main  camp.  I  will 
stay  here  and  fight  them  alone.  If  we  all  go  together  to  the  big  camp  the 
enemy  will  follow  and  kill  a  good  many.” 

By  hurrying,  the  woman  finished  lacing  the  snowshoes  by  dusk  and, 
taking  the  child,  went  to  the  large  camp,  leaving  her  husband  alone.  Near 
morning,  before  the  usual  time  of  attacking,  the  man  built  a  good  fire  and 
went  out  of  the  tipi  taking  his  snowshoes  and  weapons.  He  sat  down  in 
the  brush  nearby  to  watch.  At  daybreak,  a  large  party  of  the  enemy 
attacked  with  much  shouting.  They  surrounded  the  tipi  and  stabbed  it 
through  and  through.  Not  hearing  anyone,  a  man  went  in  and  called  to 
those  on  the  outside,  “There  is  no  one  here.”  “Yes  there  is,”  the  man 
called  from  his  hiding  place.  He  started  to  run  on  his  large  snowshoes 
which  kept  him  on  the  surface  of  the  snow.  Making  use  of  his  medicine, 
he  called  for  a  south  wind.  It  came  and  the  party  pursuing  him  began  to 
sweat  and  drop  off  their  clothes.  When  he  had  led  them  a  long  ways  from 
their  clothes  he  called  for  a  north  wind.  It  came,  and  the  sweating  enemy 
turned  to  go  back  for  their  abandoned  clothing.  On  their  way  back  they 
huddled  around  fires  trying  to  keep  warm.  The  man  now  turned  on  them 
and  speared  them,  half  frozen  by  their  fires  and  killed  them  all. 

He  traveled  all  day  to  reach  the  large  camp,  fearing  for  the  safety  of 
his  wife  and  child.  As  he  approached  the  camp  he  heard  the  head  man 
wailing  for  his  supposed  death.  “No,”  the  man  said,  “  I  am  not  dead  this 
time.  I  killed  them  all.” 


A  Man  Saves  his  Parents-in-law  from  Starving. 

One  time  the  people  were  starving  and  were  traveling  where  there  was  a 
cache.  One  old  woman  was  so  hungry  she  sat  down.  Her  son-in-law  on 
ahead  knew  that  his  mother-in-law  had  sat  down.  His  brother  was  far 
away.  “Sit  here  and  wait  for  me,”  he  said  to  her.  “ If  I  go  in  the  timber, 
and  if  you  hear  something  do  not  pay  any  attention  to  it.”  Her  son-in-law 
made  a  noise  by  breaking  a  stick,  but  she  did  not  go  to  him.  She  could 
almost  see  her  son-in-law,  who  was  making  a  noise  with  his  bowstring.  He 
had  killed  two  cow  moose. 


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His  father-in-law  had  been  sitting  over  there  with  his  wife.  The  son-in- 
law  went  again  to  bring  the  meat.  His  father-in-law  who  had  killed  a  bear, 
had  also  gone  for  the  meat.  They  met  each  other  there  and  traveled  on 
happily. 

Because  the  other  people  had  deserted  them,  they  did  not  follow  after 
them.  They  lived  happily  where  they  were,  using  the  meat  of  the  animals 
which  they  had  killed  for  food.  Some  time  after,  they  followed  the  remain¬ 
der  of  the  band,  and  came  to  the  cache.  The  meat  was  gone.  These  first 
comers  moved  away  again,  but  they  did  not  succeed  in  killing  anything 
and  they  nearly  died  of  starvation.  Those  who  came  last  had  meat,  but 
they  did  net  share  with  those  who  came  first  to  the  cache. 


A  Man,  Frightened  by  his  Wife,  Kills  Swimming  Caribou. 

A  man  and  his  wife  were  sitting  where  the  caribou  cross  the  lake.  It 
looked  as  if  they  would  starve  to  death.  There  were  no  caribou.  Then 
suddenly  there  were  two  caribou  swimming  across.  He  had  a  canoe  there 
into  which  he  went  and  started  to  paddle  toward  the  caribou.  He  did  not 
paddle  long  and  did  not  kill  them,  but  turned  around  and  started  to  paddle 
back.  “What  is  the  matter?”  his  wife  said  to  herself.  She  was  very 
hungry.  He  was  paddling  close  to  her.  “  What  is  the  matter?  We  were 
about  to  die  before;  now  we  cannot  live,”  the  woman  was  thinking.  The 
deer  were  swimming  over  there  in  the  middle  of  the  lake.  The  man  was 
paddling  close  and  she  spread  her  legs  toward  him.  He  was  afraid  and 
paddled  away  from  her.  He  really  left  her  and  killed  the  caribou,  and  they 
blew  ashore  where  the  woman  was  sitting.  The  woman  sat  there,  but  the 
man  was  gone;  he  was  far  away.  “I  think  he  deserted  me,”  she  said  to 
herself.  She  did  not  know  where  the  people  were  and  feared  she  would 
die.  Then  he  came  back  to  her. 


An  Entire  Band  is  Killed  by  the  Cree. 

A  band  of  Indians  were  traveling  in  a  starving  condition.  They  were 
hastening  frantically  towards  a  fish  lake.  “We  shall  get  there  tomorrow,” 
they  were  saying.  They  came  to  the  lake  the  next  evening  only  to  find  the 
Cree  there.  When  they  came  to  an  open  place  each  party  saw  the  other. 
There  was  nothing  they  could  do  so  they  began  to  kill  each  other.  There 
were  many  of  the  Cree  and  they  were  stronger  than  the  Beaver.  The 
Beaver  were  not  able  to  kill  a  single  one  of  the  Cree  but  were  themselves 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


281 


killed  to  a  man.  Then  the  women  and  children  came  along  behind  and  the 
Cree  killed  them  all.  They  were  slaughtered  to  the  last  one. 


A  Cree,  Caught  Alone,  is  Killed  by  the  Beaver. 

Some  young  men  were  out  in  the  caribou  country  camping  and  snaring 
game.  They  visited  their  snares  frequently.  Four  young  men  were  out 
in  the  morning  to  look  after  the  snares.  When  they  were  coming  back  they 
saw  one  man  had  passed  along  wearing  round  snowshoes.  “This  must  be 
a  Cree  and  we  will  kill  him,”  they  said.  They  hurried  after  him.  He  was 
going  toward  their  camp.  He  came  out  on  a  lake  and  was  walking  along 
ahead.  The  young  men  ran  after  him  and  caught  hold  of  him.  “Tell  us 
what  you  are  going  after.  Did  you  ever  kill  people?”  they  asked  him. 
“Yes,  I  have  killed  people  but  they  weren’t  like  people.  They  were  bad 
people.  Those  are  the  only  ones  I  have  killed,”  he  replied.  He  meant 
the  friends  of  these  young  men.  They  stabbed  him  through  the  body  and 
put  the  body  in  the  water.  Those  young  men  killed  him. 


Man  Scares  off  the  Cree  with  a  Gun. 

They  were  living  there  when  one  of  them  felt  there  was  something  wrong. 
He  asked  the  people  to  keep  good  watch.  The  next  morning  the  Cree  at¬ 
tacked  them.  This  old  man  had  one  gun  and  four  bullets.  His  tipi  was 
the  last  one  in  the  row.  When  the.  Cree  were  coming  there  he  fired  the  gun. 
He  had  planned  what  he  would  do.  He  killed  the  Cree  who  was  running- 
ahead  and  the  others  ran  back.  The  Cree  thought  he  had  a  gun  and  were 
afraid.  That  was  a  tough  old  man.  They  say  he  wintered  on  his  flesh. 

The  old  man  had  found  the  gun  with  four  bullets  lying  beside  it  at  a 
place  where  some  people  had  been  killed.  He  had  kept  it  without  firing  it 
and  now  he  killed  a  man  with  it.  Then  they  say  the  old  man  had  the  use 
of  it. 

The  Beaver,  their  Arrows  having  been  used  on  Buffalo,  are  Killed 

by  the  Cree. 

The  man  went  out  after  buffalo  and  killed  them  all.  A  woman  told 
them  she  had  seen  some  Cree.  The  men  told  her  she  was  lying.  They 
had  expended  all  their  arrows  on  the  buffalo  and  had  only  their  bare 
hands  to  fight  with.  The  Cree  came  upon  them  and  killed  many  of  them. 
The  Beaver  killed  only  five  of  the  Cree. 


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A  Man  and  his  Wife  Alone  Escape  the  Cree. 

At  first  the  people  were  starving.  One  man  was  nearly  starved.  They 
were  hurrying  to  the  lake  for  fish.  “We  will  get  to  the  fish  by  tomorrow,” 
they  said.  When  they  came  down  to  the  lake  the  Cree  were  there  and  killed 
them  all  except  the  miserable  man.  He  was  the  only  one  that  survived. 
He  had  started  back  after  his  wife  and  met  her  when  she  was  nearly  to  the 
lake.  He  called  to  her  to  come  to  him.  She  went  there  and  they  cleared 
away  the  snow  and  lay  down  and  slept  four  days  without  a  fire.  When  the 
sun  rose  they  got  up  and  the  man  started  over  to  the  lake.  Out  on  it  was  a 
black  spot  which  proved  to  be  the  bodies  of  the  people  who  had  been  killed. 
Not  one  of  the  Beaver  was  alive. 


A  Woman  Hides  Bear  Meat  from  her  Starving  Husband. 

Once  a  band  of  Indians  were  traveling  about  starving.  There  was  one 
man  who  was  a  poor  hunter  and  no  one  fed  him.  Then  the  man’s  wife 
found  a  bear  and  hid  it  from  the  others.  The  man  did  not  know  about  it 
either.  He  had  been  some  distance  ahead  and  returned  to  find  his  wife 
gone.  He  wondered  what  was  the  matter  and  turned  back  to  look  for  her. 
When  he  came  back  close  he  stood  listening,  for  he  feared  the  Cree  were 
about.  He  heard  his  children  asking  for  fat.  “Why  do  the  children  say 
that?”  he  said  to  himself.  When  he  came  home  nothing  but  bear  fat  was 
to  be  seen.  He  was  frightened.  The  woman  was  hiding  it.  “  Since  you 
have  hidden  it  for  a  short  time,  you  must  continue  to  hide  well,”  he  said. 
They  were  with  the  people  and  had  eaten  up  a  bear  without  their  knowing 
it.  They  had  not  secured  fish  and  the  children  were  about  to  die  of  starva¬ 
tion,  yet  she  had  hidden  the  bear.  The  woman  was  not  feeding  that  man. 
They  had  been  many  places  for  fish,  but  they  had  not  killed  any  when 
suddenly  they  began  to  kill  fish.  He  lived  well  with  the  people.  They  all 
lived  until  the  snow  melted. 


Starving  Beaver  Visit  the  Rocky  Mountains.1 

Many  Beaver  Indians  were  traveling  together.  It  was  winter  and  the 
snow  was  deep.  They  had  no  knives,  axes,  or  guns.  They  made  snow- 

i  it  has  happened  within  recent  years,  that  small  parties  of  Indians,  hunting  in  a  vast, 
unexplored  territory,  west  of  Vermilion,  have  wandered  from  their  hunting-grounds  to  those 
of  the  Fort  St.  John  Indians,  and  Indians  from  Fort  St.  John  appear  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Vermilion. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Heaver  Indians. 


283 

shoes  with  stones  and  heaver  teeth  for  tools.  They  were  having  a  hard  time 
and  dying  of  starvation.  They  kept  dying  until  only  three  men  were  alive 
who  set  out  to  find  other  people.  They  were  traveling  along  and  were  in  a 
bad  way  for  food  when  they  killed  a  porcupine.  Having  eaten  that,  they 
slept,  and  one  of  them  dreamed  of  the  place  where  people  were  living.  The 
next  morning  they  started  in  that  direction,  and  continued  until  they  came 
to  the  Rocky  Mountains  which  they  climbed.  They  were  traveling  there 
with  great  difficulty,  when  suddenly  they  saw  a  fire.  They  came  to  the 
people  who  had  the  fire,  and  found  them  well  supplied  with  meat.  Those 
three  men  were  saved.  Then  when  summer  came  again,  they  came  back 
in  this  direction  to  their  own  country. 


Fournier’s  Family  Escape  Starvation.1 

After  that  I  was  married  and  had  children.  The  oldest  one  was  begin¬ 
ning  to  kill  moose  when  L  moved  my  camp  to  a  distant  place,  where  there 
proved  to  be  no  moose.  The  lack  of  food  was  very  pressing,  and  for  a 
month  there  was  not  even  a  porcupine.  When  the  people  had  become  weak, 
I  suddenly  killed  a  moose,  but  it  was  quickly  eaten  up.  Then  I  moved 
where  there  used  to  be  fish.  Again,  I  was  so  weak  I  could  not  walk,  when 
my  son  killed  a  young  moose.  With  that  for  food  I  went  on  again  and 
camped  where  the  fish  were.  The  band  killed  many  fish  and  wrere  saved. 


The  Escape  of  the  Brothers  from  the  Beaver  Lodge. 

There  were  two  young  brothers  who  went  in  under  a  beaver  lodge. 
They  were  waiting  there  listening  to  detect  the  beaver.  While  they  were 
there,  a  party  of  Cree  came  and  killed  the  people  at  the  camp.  The  young 
men  did  not  find  it  out,  but  the  Cree  saw  them  and  came  to  the  hole  which 
they  had  cut  in  the  beaver  lodge  and  brought  a  quantity  of  dry  wood  which 
they  pushed  in  and  set  on  fire.  The  men  inside  were  in  great  distress,  and 
could  hardly  breathe  on  account  of  smoke.  They  were  about  to  die  and 
there  was  nothing  they  could  do  to  help  themselves.  They  plunged  into 
the  water,  for  they  knew  that  down  stream  there  was  a  hole  which  had  been 
cut  through  the  ice.  The  older  brother  succeeded  in  reaching  the  hole  and 
came  out.  I  suppose  he  did  not  do  it  without  some  reason.2  His  younger 
brother  was  behind  him,  for  the  older  brother  had  said,  “Keep  right  behind 


1  Told  by  an  old  man,  a  former  chief,  named  Fournier. 

2  Interpolated  by  the  narrator  to  explain  that  the  man  had  supernatural  help  in  escaping. 


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me.”  He  felt  for  his  brother  and  caught  him  by  the  foot  just  as  he  was 
passing  the  opening.  They  both  got  out  safely  and  went  away  and  hid. 
The  clothes  they  had  on,  being  wet,  froze.  They  were  nearly  frozen  to 
death,  but  escaped. 

There  were  no  white  people  here  at  that  time.  They  had  a  hard  time 
because  of  the  Cree  who  were  always  killing  them.  This  happened  when 
they  had  breechcloths  of  skin. 


The  Killing  of  the  Children  Avenged. 

The  men  were  away  after  buffalo  and  their  wives  were  moving  the  camp 
along  after  them.  There  was  one  woman  living  with  them.  “  When  you 
were  named  Wind-crossing-each-other,  you  used  to  say  they  (the  Cree)  are 
coming  after  us.”  “Yes,”  she  said. 

This  woman  (?)  who  was  coming  along  behind  them  turned  off  on  another 
road.  She  made  a  road  far  from  that  place,  not  stopping  to  sleep  until  it 
was  daylight.  When  one  could  see,  the  young  buffaloes  were  coming  from 
way  over  there.  They  drank  up  all  the  water.  All  the  children  were  say¬ 
ing,  “Mother,  father,  here  is  mother’s  camp.”  Now  strange  people  had 
killed  all  the  children.  All  the  children  had  followed  her  along  the  upper 
road.  She  had  put  them  in  a  hole  there. 

An  old  woman  ran  from  there  to  where  the  men  were  killing  the  buffalo 
and  said,  “Come,  our  children  have  all  been  killed.  The  men  started  run¬ 
ning  on  the  snow  without  their  moccasins.  They  were  crting  because  their 
children  were  all  killed.  There  was  one  boy,  the  old  woman’s  son,  who  did 
not  care.  “  Do  as  you  please,”  he  told  them.  “  I  will  come  in  the  morning.” 
He  did  not  care,  he  simply  pulled  the  meat  out  of  his  mouth.  When  it 
was  nearly  daylight  he  started.  The  others  were  lying  on  the  ground  with 
cramps.  He  went  after  the  others.  They  were  crying  because  their  chil¬ 
dren  had  been  killed.  He  cut  off  the  ears  of  some  of  them  and  let  them 
suffer  still  living.  He  made  them  like  the  rest  of  his  relatives.  “  Let  them 
suffer,”  he  said  and  so  he  had  revenge.1 


The  Killing  of  the  Women  Avenged. 

The  men  were  away  after  buffalo;  only  the  women  were  sitting  around 
the  camp  when  the  Cree  came  and  killed  them  all.  There  were  no  m£n 

1  Both  the  text  and  the  interpretation  were  so  poorly  done  that  the  narrative  is  hardly 
intelligible. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


285 


there.  One  old  woman  went  where  the  men  were  and  told  them.  The 
men  went  back  where  the  women  were,  but  the  Cree  were  gone.  The  men 
started  after  them,  and  when  they  overtook  them,  they  killed  them  all. 
They  did  not  leave  one  alive  because  they  had  killed  their  wives. 


A  Man  Finds  Beaver  in  Small  Places. 

One  man  went  to  get  beaver.  “  I  should  be  able  to  kill  beaver  even  in 
very  small  places,”  he  said  to  himself.  He  went  back  and  asked  someone 
to  go  with  him  after  beaver  and  muskrats.  He  said  they  could  go  behind 
and  drive  the  muskrats  ahead  so  they  might  kill  them  in  a  small  beaver 
place  and  eat  them  all  up.  They  went  there  and  started  after  them  and  the 
muskrats  ran  off  ahead  of  them.  When  he  came  back  there  again  the  men 
were  sitting  at  the  small  beaver  place.  “We  will  eat  it  all  up,”  he  said. 
“  We  will  make  a  hole  under  his  food  and  go  in  there.  Far  up  there  they 
came  to  the  end.  They  looked  for  him  there  but  he  was  not  to  be  found. 
Then  one  man  went  into  a  minkskin  and  looked  for  him.  Then  he  found 
him  and  started  after  him.  There  at  the  end  he  pushed  the  wood  out. 
He  went  home  again. 

Then  they  were  very  hungry.  “Go  look  for  some  sticks,”  he  told  them. 
They  looked  for  them  and  found  a  stick.  When  they  were  looking  for  it 
they  saw  the  beaver  sitting.  They  killed  them  all.  The  people  were 
pleased. 


Putting  the  Enemy  to  sleep  by  Magic. 

Two  men  started  out  to  kill  people.  As  they  were  going  along  the  road 
they  saw  a  large  number  of  people  sitting  down.  The  two  men  were  not 
themselves  seen.  “  Well,  let  us  get  away  from  them,”  said  the  elder  brother, 
and  they  turned  back.  “Let  us  shoot  them  anyway,”  said  the  younger 
brother.  “There  are  too  many  people,  we  will  get  caught,”  the  older  one 
insisted.  “Let  us  shoot  them  anyway,”  the  younger  brother  repeated  and 
pointed  his  gun  at  them  again.  “  We  will  get  caught,  there  are  too  many  of 
them,”  the  older  said  again.  “Well,  turn  back,  if  you  are  afraid,”  the 
younger  one  said,  and  they  turned  back.  “I  will  fool  them,”  one  of  them 
said.  They  put  their  weapons  on  the  ground  and  went  where  the  people 
from  a  distant  country  were  sitting.  When  these  people  saw  them  they 
asked  the  young  men  what  they  were  looking  for.  They  replied  that  they 
were  not  out  on  a  foolish  errand  but  belonged  to  a  large  party  who  were 
traveling  over  by  the  river.  They  had  gone  off  by  them  selves  because  they 


286 


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had  been  scolded.  They  proposed  that  four  young  men  should  return 
with  them. 

With  these  four  men  they  came  down  to  a  very  large  river.  After  sun¬ 
set  they  went  to  bed.  One  of  the  two  young  men  tried  to  make  them 
sleep  by  use  of  supernatural  power.  “  One  of  them  must  be  a  powerful 
medicineman,”  he  said  to  himself.  After  considerable  time  he  caused  them 
all  to  sleep.  “Now,”  he  said  to  his  companion,  and  they  killed  them  all 
with  their  knives. 


A  Blind  Man’s  Attempt  at  Defence. 

Once  a  party  went  to  war.  After  they  had  been  traveling  some  time 
they  came  where  people  were  living.  Thinking  they  had  found  the  people 
they  were  seeking,  they  went  into  the  tipi  to  visit  them.  An  old  man  1 
sitting  there  asked  them  where  they  were  going.  They  replied  that  they 
were  just  camping  about.  The  old  man,  suspecting  they  were  not  telling 
the  truth,  asked  a  boy  if  there  were  children  in  the  party.  The  boy  told 
his  grandfather,  “No.”  “That  is  what  I  thought,”  the  old  man  replied. 
“If  they  were  camping  about  there  would  be  children  along.” 

Then  those  who  were  visiting  him  said,  “  Grandfather,  what  did  you  say? 
You  talk  a  foreign  language  all  the  time.”  The  old  man  sat  with  one  foot 
on  a  knife  with  which  he  was  intending  to  kill  them.  He  was  blind  and 
did  not  know  the  knife  was  partly  in  sight.  He  reached  behind  his  back 
and  found  some  choice  pieces  of  meat  which  he  took  out  and  roasted.  He 
ate  it  by  himself  thinking  that  it  was  his  last  meal.  He  did  not  offer  food 
to  his  guests. 

Just  then  his  son-in-law  came  back  and  entered  the  tipi.  “I  want  a 
drink,”  he  said  to  his  wife.  “I  think  the  water  is  all  gone.”  “You  are  not 
an  old  man,  get  it  yourself,”  the  old  man  said.  He  took  up  the  vessel  and 
went  for  the  water.  He  had  left  his  snowshoes  and  bow  and  arrows  at 
some  distance  from  the  camp  because  he  did  not  recognize  the  visitors  and 
suspected  they  were  only  pretending  to  pay  a  visit.  Instead  of  getting  the 
water  he  went  back  where  he  had  left  his  things,  and  taking  them,  started 
to  run  away.  When  the  strangers  saw  him,  they  called  to  him,  “  \\  hat  are 
you  doing,  my  friend?  You  are  running  away  and  we  are  paying  you  a 
visit.”  The  young  man  ran  on  until  he  was  out  of  sight. 

The  old  man  was  holding  his  foot  on  the  knife  so  that  the  knife  was 


1  This  old  blind  man’s  name  was  deski,  a  “Rocky  Mountain”  Indian,  (tsaet’u)  that  is, 
Fort  St.  John  Beaver. 


1910.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


287 


projecting  a  little.  “  He  will  do  something,”  the  guests  said  in  Cree.  They 
folded  up  a  blanket  and  put  it  between  themselves  and  him,  saying  he  would 
mistake  it  for  a  man.  The  old  man  did  as  they  thought  he  would.  He 
stabbed  the  blanket  thinking  it  was  a  man.  The  men  then  ran  out  and 
began  to  shoot  at  him  from  a  distance.  They  killed  him.  He  too  was 
shooting  at  the  strangers  and  nearly  killed  a  man  although  he  could  not  see 
them.  “If  he  had  not  been  blind  we  would  not  have  succeeded  in  killing 
him,”  they  said  to  each  other. 

They  killed  all  his  wives.  They  were  hunting  for  that  man  for  his  band 
was  bad  and  had  been  annoying  the  Indians. 


A  Battle  on  an  Island. — -First  Version. 

A  large  war  party  set  out  and  traveled  a  long  way  looking  for  the  enemy. 
They  did  not  find  them  but  came  down  to  a  large  river.  “We  shall  not  find 
them,”  they  said,  among  themselves.  Someone  sang  some  songs  to  locate 
them  and  said  that  the  enemy  were  living  not  far  downstream.  The  party 
went  on  and  came  where  they  could  see  them.  The  enemy  were  camped 
on  an  island  with  strong  rapids  surrounding  it  and  they  were  difficult  to 
attack.  They  had  killed  some  people  and  were  protecting  themselves  in 
this  manner. 

Toward  evening  one  of  the  attacking  party  sang  a  song  and  caused  all 
the  enemy  to  sleep  but  one  man  who  did  not  yield.  Another  of  the  party 
said  he  would  try  and  sang  a  song  against  him,  making  him  fall  asleep. 
They  attempted  to  cross  to  the  island  but  the  water  was  strong  and  they 
were  being  carried  downstream  with  only  their  heads  projecting  above  the 
water.  One  of  the  men  then  told  the  others  to  take  hold  of  him  and  not  to 
let  go.  Forming  a  chain,  they  succeeded  in  swimming  across  to  the  island. 
When  they  were  ready  to  go  to  the  enemy  for  the  attack  they  saw  some  geese 
sitting  there.  One  of  the  geese  was  about  to  make  an  outcry  when  one  of 
the  men  told  the  goose  not  to  do  it.  The  goose  obeyed.  They  rushed 
upon  the  enemy  and  killed  them.  There  was  one  man  who  did  not  die' 
although  they  stabbed  him  all  over.  He  jumped  in  the  water  and  disap¬ 
peared.  They  did  not  find  his  body.  It  was  difficult,  but  they  succeeded 
in  killing  them  all. 

The  people  who  were  killed  were  not  Cree  but  a  people  called  Tsat’u.' 
They  say  those  people  had  never  seen  white  men. 


1  They  were  said  to  be  the  band  of  deski,  the  old  man  whose  deat  h  is  related  in  the  pre¬ 
vious  story. 


288 


Anthropological  Papers  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  I'Vol.  X, 


A  Battle  on  an  Island. —  Second  Version.1 

Once  long  ago  there  was  a  band  of  Indians  who  kept  killing  people.  It 
was  not  known  who  they  were  or  to  what  tribe  they  belonged.  Finally 
there  was  a  medicineman  2  who  after  being  importuned  for  a  long  time  said 
he  knew  where  this  band  was  to  be  found.  A  large  company  of  young  men 
agreed  to  go  with  this  man  and  make  war  on  the  Indians.  He  led  them 
toward  the  mountains  across  from  Dunvegan.  When  the  party  came  to 
the  mountains,  the  medicineman  said  the  people  they  sought  were  not  far 
away  and  that  they  might  see  them  tomorrow. 

After  they  had  slept  he  told  them  that  the  enemy  were  nearby.  He  said 
that  soon  a  deer  driven  by  the  flies  would  run  right  into  the  party.  They 
were  to  kill  the  deer  and  take  only  a  little  of  the  meat.  A  little  beyond  that 
they  would  come  to  an  open  place  which  they  should  not  cross.  Perhaps 
from  there  something  could  be  seen.  As  had  been  foretold  they  met  with 
the  deer  and  then  came  to  the  bank  of  a  river.  They  saw  the  camp  on  the 
opposite  side  with  many  canoes  drawn  up  on  the  shore.  There  were  many 
men  in  sight.  The  medicineman  directed  them  to  wait  until  morning  to 
make  the  attack.  One  of  the  party  made  medicine  to  cause  the  enemy  to 
sleep  soundly.  Early  in  the  morning,  they  crossed  the  river.  A  flock  of 
geese  were  about  to  make  an  outcry  when  the  medicineman  made  a  motion 
toward  the  ground  and  told  them  to  keep  still  which  they  did.  As  they 
approached  the  camp,  a  dog  started  to  bark  and  ran  toward  the  camp. 
They  all  rushed  forward  thinking  the  camp  would  be  alarmed  by  the  dog. 
They  ran  so  fast  one  of  the  young  men  overtook  the  dog  and  killed  it  with  a 
knife.  The  medicine-making  had  been  so  effective  no  one  was  wakened  by 
the  barking  of  the  dog.  They  killed  them  all  but  one  man  who  ran  and 
jumped  in  the  river.  As  he  jumped,  one  of  the  attacking  party  disem¬ 
boweled  him.  Neither  he  nor  his  body  was  seen  again. 


A  Dog-Rib  Kills  Some  Men. 

One  time  a  Dog-Rib  who  was  making  a  camp  ready  for  those  who  were 
coming  said  to  some  Beaver,  “There  are  fox  holes  where  you  are.”  He 
said  it  because  he  thought  he  might  kill  them.  The  Beaver  went  in  and 
began  to  shoot.  They  killed  many  of  the  Beaver  but  a  few  got  away. 
They  killed  them  as  they  ran.  It  was  his  younger  brother  who  did  this. 


1  Obtained  from  Ike  in  English  through  John  Bourassa. 

2  Fournier,  who  was  sitting  by,  said  this  man  was  his  mother's  grandfather. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


289 


It  was  on  account  of  the  Cree.  They  were  very  miserable  on  account 
of  them.  Before  white  people  came  they  were  hunting  each  other.  The 
Cree  were  trying  to  kill  the  Beaver.  Now  they  have  made  friends  with 
each  other  and  nothing  happens  now. 


The  Killing  of  the  Trader  at  Fort  St.  John. — First  Version. 

A  white  man  gave  the  young  man  orders  but  notwithstanding,  he  went 
back  to  his  people.  The  trader  was  angry  and  killed  the  boy  with  medicine 
(poison).  His  friends  knew  this  had  happened  and  went  to  the  post 1  and 
killed  the  trader.  The  young  men  attached  to  the  post  had  gone  for  wood 
in  a  boat.  The  Beaver  were  lying  in  wait  for  them.  When  they  returned 
and  the  white  men  stepped  ashore  they  shot  them  and  killed  them  alL  The 
steersman  jumped  into  the  water.  He  came  to  the  surface  far  out  in  the 
stream.  They  shot  at  him  and  killed  him.  They  took  the  goods  from  the 
store  and  lived  many  years  on  them.  When  they  were  gone  they  lived 
with  their  bows  and  arrows.  They  remained  in  the  woods  and  did  not 
visit  a  white  man’s  house  because  they  were  afraid.  From  that  time  they 
increased,  living  with  their  bows  and  arrows,  not  having  gunpowder. 


The  Killing  of  the  Trader  at  Fort  St.  John. —  Second  Version 

It  seems  that  the  white  traders  first  had  a  trading  post  at  Pine  River. 
The  Beaver  Indians  killed  the  man  in  charge  of  the  post,  and  all  his  servants. 
After  that  these  Indians  kept  away  from  white  people,  and  were  afraid  to 
go  near  them  thinking  they  would  be  killed.  Some  time  after  they  built 
another  post  which  has  remained  until  the  present  time. 


Childbirth  Customs. 

When  a  woman  is  going  to  have  a  baby,  she  goes  outside  to  some  out-of- 
the-way  place  and  gives  birth  to  a  baby  by  a  brush-sheltered  fire.  It  makes 
no  difference  whether  the  weather  be  warm  or  cold.  After  the  child  is  born 
she  stays  by  herself  a  month  without  coming  into  the  camp.  She  must  not 
travel  on  the  winter  trail,  but  makes  one  for  herself  along  one  side  of  it. 


i  This  refers  to  the  trading  post  at  Fort  St.  John,  called  by  the  Beaver  gQtkwe,  “Spruce 
House.”  The  first  post  stood  on  the  east  side  of  North  Pine  River,  near  where  it  enters  the 
Peace. 


290 


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She  is  not  permitted  to  cross  a  man’s  trail.  She  does  not  eat  any  part  of 
the  head  of  a  moose.  After  one  month  has  passed  she  goes  back  to  her  own 
tipi. 


A  Description  of  Primitive  Life. 

Formerly,  before  white  people  were  known,  they  were  living  in  a  miser¬ 
able  way.  They  were  making  their  living  with  snares  and  bows  and  arrows. 
They  used  a  piece  of  horn  to  chisel  for  Jbeaver,  and  it  was  a  very  miserable 
way.  There  was  no  iron  at  that  time,  and  the  beaver  chisels  were  made  of 
moose  horn.  That  they  might  see  the  beaver  under  the  ice,  they  made 
shovels  of  wood  to  remove  the  snow.  When  they  had  no  iron,  they  used 
beaver  teeth  l.  The  one  who  made  this  world  told  us  it  would  be  that  way. 
They  made  fire  by  rubbing  two  stones  together  with  dry  grass  rubbed  fine 
for  tinder.  They  made  their  houses  and  firewood  with  their  hands.  They 
made  knives  by  rubbing  stones  sharp,  with  which  they  cut  the  meat  they 
ate. 

They  say  that  living  that  way  the  people  were  near  starvation.  They 
were  close  to  dead  people,  living  that  way.  When  they  had  no  meat  in 
their  bellies,  they  used  to  put  pine  brush  under  their  belts.  There  was 
nothing  inside  of  them,  and  the  brush  enabled  them  to  breathe  without 
bending. 

When,  at  first,  they  were  living  with  snares,  they  used  to  put  trees  in  a 
row,  leaving  a  passageway  between.  When  the  moose  passed  along  there, 
they  were  caught  in  the  snares.  When  they  had  no  combs  they  made  combs 
of  pine-brush. 

Hunting  Experiences. —  Dunvegan  Dialect. 

I  had  been  hunting  all  day  without  seeing  a  track  when  toward  sunset  I 
started  toward  some  distant  pines.  Just  at  dusk  I  came  near  a  bluff  and 
there  I  saw  a  moose  track.  A  strong  wind  was  blowing.  “I  wish  I  had 
seen  your  track  in  the  day  time,”  I  said  to  myself. 

I  started  after  the  moose  and  when  I  was  about  to  pass  behind  the  pines 
I  looked  ahead  and  saw  a  moose  standing  by  a  tree.  I  came  up  to  it,  raised 
my  gun  and  aimed'  it.  I  could  not  see  the  sights  of  the  gun.  My  father 
had  told  me  to  put  snow  on  the  end  of  the  gun  when  shooting  at  night.  I 
did  this  and  aimed  low  when  I  saw  nothing  and  then  high,  gradually  lower- 


i  The  teeth  were  left  attached  to  the  jawbone.  Petitot  (p.  136)  has  a  story  of  a  giant 
who  had  the  teeth  of  a  giant  beaver  for  a  knife. 


1916.] 


Goddard ,  The  Beaver  Indians. 


291 


ing  the  gun  until  it  seemed  to  me  right  when  I  shot.  The  moose  ran  along 
one  side  of  me.  I  looked  for  it  again  toward  the  west  and  again  saw  it 
standing.  I  reloaded  the  gun  and  again  put  snow  on  the  end  of  the  barrel. 
I  raised  the  gun  again  until  I  thought  it  was  aimed  right  and  fired.  The 
moose  ran  in  the  same  direction  again. 

As  I  went  after  the  moose  again  I  saw  something  dark  on  the  snow. 
“What  is  it?”  I  thought  to  myself  and  taking  some  of  it  up  I  put  it  in  my 
mouth.  It  was  blood  and  I  thought  I  had  killed  the  moose.  I  went  where 
there  was  something  dark  under  a  tree.  I  took  up  a  stick  and  stabbed  it 
under  its  head.  I  had  killed  it. 


II 

We  were  making  a  road  and  carrying  some  traps  we  were  going  to  set. 
My  brother-in-law  and  my  elder  brother  went  on  ahead  while  I  set  a  trap. 
I  came  where  my  brother-in-law  was  sitting  by  a  little  creek.  He  was 
killing  himself  with  laughter.  I  asked  him  why  he  was  laughing  and  he  told 
me  to  look.  A  marten  and  a  weasel  were  fighting.  Although  the  weasel 
is  small,  he  is  smart.  We  sat  there  watching  them.  Just  as  we  decided  to 
shoot  and  kill  the  marten  they  started  to  fight  again.  “Fight  hard,”  my 
brother-in-law  told  them  and  they  ran  off.  We  killed  nothing  after  all. 

III 

It  happened  once  whefi  I  was  a  boy  that  I  was  after  a  bear.  The  bear 
chased  me  and  when  he  came  up  to  me  my  gun  would  not  go  off.  I  threw 
it  away  and  fled  empty  handed.  I  pulled  out  my  knife  and  ran  under  a 
leaning  tree  and  jumped  back  over  it.  The  bear  did  the  same  and  we 
jumped  toward  each  other.  The  bear  struck  out  with  his  foreleg  and  I 
disemboweled  him  with  the  knife  which  was  two-edged. 

IV 

I  had  a  single-barreled  gun  when  two  dogs  were  barking  in  front  of  a 
grizzly’s  den.  The  bear  ran  out  after  the  dogs  but  my  gun  would  not  go 
off.  The  cap  came  off.  The  bear  chased  me  all  about  until  I  bit  the  cap 
together  and  then  the  gun  went  off.  The  bullet  broke  the  bear’s  backbone. 

V 

I  went  with  dogs  after  a  moose  in  the  early  morning.  The  dogs  barked 
at  the  moose  which  stood  still  and  then  ran  after  the  dogs.  It  ran  so  close 
to  me,  it  stepped  on  my  snowshoes.  It  was  so  close  I  could  hear  its  heart 


292 


Anthropological  Papers  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  X, 


beat.  I  was  holding  the  gun  by  its  muzzle  and  I  fired.  The  moose  fell  and 
I  jumped  off  the  snowshoe.  Its  leg  was  sticking  through  the  snowshoe.  I 
skinned  the  moose  and  went  home  to  my  tipi. 


Dispersion  of  the  Tribes. —  Dunvegan  Dialect. 

A  dog  was  seen  by  a  woman  to  defile  a  quiver  of  arrows.  She  told  the 
owner  who  said  he  would  clean  them,  but  his  younger  brother  said  if  that 
happened  to  his  arrows  the  one  who  did  it  would  soon  fall  over  (dead). 
The  dog  that  did  it  was  standing  there  and  the  man  took  his  bow,  shot  the 
dog  and  killed  it.  The  men  then  all  got  up  and  began  fighting.  Many 
were  killed  and  the  remainder  fled,  some  in  one  direction  and  some  in 
another.1 


1  The  narrator  said  this  happened  when  the  various  tribes  were  separated  at  the  beginning 
of  the  world. 


1916.] 


Goddard,  Beaver  Texts. 


293 


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Goddard,  P.  E.  (a)  Jicarilla  Apache  Texts  (Anthropological  Papers,  American 

Museum  of  Natural  History,  vol.  8,  New  York,  1911.) 

(b)  Texts  and  .Analysis  of  Cold  Lake  Dialect,  Chipewyan  (An¬ 

thropological  Papers,  American  Museum  of  Natural 
History,  vol.  10,  parts  1  and  2,  New  York,  1912.) 

(c)  Sarsi  Texts  (University  of  California  Publications  in  American 

Archaeology  and  Ethnology,  vol.  11,  no.  3,  Berkeley, 
1915.) 

Hearne,  Samuel.  Journey  from  Prince  of  Wales’s  Fort  in  Hudson’s  Bay,  to  the 

Northern  Ocean.  London,  1795. 

Kroeber,  A.  L.  Gros  Ventre  Myths  and  Tales  (Anthropological  Papers,  American 

Museum  of  Natural  History,  vol.  1,  part  3,  New  York, 
1907.) 

Lowie,  Robert  H.  (a)  Chipewyan  Tales  (Anthropological  Papers,  American 

Museum  of  Natural  History,  vol.  10,  part  3,  New 
York,  1912.) 

(b)  The  Test-Theme  in  North  American  Mythology  (Journal 
of  American  Folk-Lore,  vol.  21,  pp.  97-148,  1908.) 
Mackenzie,  Alexander.  Voyages  from  Montreal  on  the  River  St.  Laurence 

through  the  Continent  of  North  America  to  the  Frozen 
and  Pacific  Oceans.  In  the  years  1789-1793.  Lon¬ 
don,  1801. 

Matthews,  Washington.  Navaho  Legends  (Memoirs,  American  Folk-Lore 

Society,  vol.  5,  pp.  1-299,  1897.) 

Petitot,  Emile.  Traditions  Indiennes  du  Canada  Nord  Ouest.  Paris,  1886. 
Wissler,  Clark,  and  Duvall,  D.  C.  Mythology  of  the  Blackfoot  Indians  (Anthro¬ 
pological  Papers,  American  Museum  of  Natural 
History,  vol.  2,  part  1,  New  York,  1908.) 


( Continued  from  Zd  p.  of  cover.) 


Volume  XII. 

I.  String-figures  from  the  Patomana  Indians  of  British  Guiana.  By  Frank 
E.  Lutz.  Pp.  1-14.  and  12  text  figures.  1912.  Price.  $.25. 

II.  Prehistoric  Bronze  in  South  America.  By  Charles  W.  Mead.  Pp.  15-52, 
and  4  text  figures.  1915.  Price,  $.25. 

III.  Peruvian  Textiles.  By  M.  D.  C.  Crawford.  Pp.  52-104,  and  23  text 
figures.  1915.  Price,  $.50. 

IV.  (In  preparation.) 

Volume  XIII. 

I.  Social  Life  and  Ceremonial  Bundles  of  the  Menomini  Indians.  By  Alan- 
son  Skinner.  Pp.  1-165,  and  30  text  figures.  1913.  Price,  $1.50. 

II.  Associations  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Menomini  Indians.  By  Alanson 
Skinner.  Pp.  167-215,  and  2  text  figures.  1915.  Price,  $.40. 

III.  Folklore  of  the  Menomini  Indians.  By  Alanson  Skinner  and  John  V. 
Satterlee.  Pp.  217-546.  1915.  Price,  $1.60. 

Volume  XIV. 

I.  The  Stefansson- Anderson  Arctic  Expedition  of  the  American  Museum: 
Preliminary  Ethnological  Report.  By  Vilhjalmur  Stefansson.  Pp.  1-376,  94  text 
figures,  and  2  maps.  1914.  Price,  $3.50. 

II.  (In  preparation.) 

Volume  XV. 

I.  Pueblo  Ruins  of  the  Galisteo  Basin,  New  Mexico.  By  N.  C.  Nelson. 
Pp  1-124,  Plates  1-4,  13  text  figures,  1  map,  and  7  plans.  1914.  Price  $.75. 

II.  (In  preparation.) 

Volume  XVI. 

I.  The  Sun  Dance  of  the  Crow  Indians.  By  Robert  H.  Lowie.  Pp.  1-50, 
and  11  text  figures.  1915.  Price,  $.50. 

II.  (In  preparation.) 

Volume  XVII. 

I.  Riding  Gear  of  the  North  American  Indians.  By  Clark  Wissler.  Pp. 
1-38,  and  27  text  figures.  1915.  Price,  $.50. 

II.  Costumes  of  the  Plains  Indians.  By  Clark  Wissler.  Pp.  41-91,  and  28 
text  figures.  1915.  Price,  $.50. 

III.  Structural  Basis  to  the  Decoration  of  Costumes  among  the  Plains  Indians. 
By  Clark  Wissler.  Pp.  93-114,  and  12  text  figures.  1916.  Price,  $.25. 

IV.  (In  press.) 


I 


